Seasons and Songs

It’s the hap-happiest season of all

With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings

When friends come to call

It’s the hap-happiest season of all

The old song tells us, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” The season is chock-full of ‘gay happy meetings’ for friends, family, school, work, and all manner of acquaintance. You may have found yourself among a circle of friends recently sharing myriad ‘holiday greetings’ to reconnect. One of these particular greetings that the introvert in me meets with slight trepidation is “What’s new?!” This innocent and friendly conversation starter always makes me feel pressured to actually have something new and exciting going on in my life to talk about.

Truth be told, I am currently in a season of unremarkable regularity. The calendar doesn’t vary too much from day to day. Spiritually speaking, life’s about the same. No peaks and valleys here, just a methodical walk of faith.

Please don’t interpret that as boring because my current daily grind is far from that, but it’s not exactly compelling reading material either – so let’s turn our attention to a group of women whose world seems dramatically exciting.

The women of Exodus watched the sunset as slaves and started their journey of freedom the very next sunrise. Strangers sent them on their way draped in riches to cross the Red Sea in style. Talk about a mountaintop season of newness!

Fast forward just a bit and these same women were throwing their gold in the pot to be melted down and fashioned into an idol. They were suffering in the desert and thought their God had abandoned them. Sin looked pretty appealing, especially if it would get them out of the valley they felt their life had become.

Repentance, forgiveness, years, and miles of desert later it makes me smile to imagine our spiritual mothers huddled together at a party making small talk. “So, girlfriend, what’s new with you?” “Well, I collected manna this morning and I just cooked the quail for supper.” Day after day after day after day…

Can you relate? Sometimes I envision the Israelite women aimlessly walking in circles for 40 years straight. This just wasn’t the case. Their journey was not an arbitrary and pointless meandering. It may have been monotonous at times, but the Lord created these women for work and they had a job to do, lessons to learn, and a destination to reach. Through their experience the Lord still speaks to us:

“For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing” (Deuteronomy 2:7).

As the New Year approaches, take some time to look back at the past forty years (actual or proverbial). What seasons has the Lord brought you through? What have you learned about Him? What season are you in now? After you’ve answered that take a moment and let this sink in. The Lord has blessed you. He knows your wilderness. He is with you. You lack nothing. Praise God!

Whatever season you are entering the New Year with, you are assured victorious passage. Jesus has conquered sin and death. He approaches your current season’s circumstances and obstacles by your side with no less power.

This post began with a song about the most wonderful time of the year so it seems fitting to end with a song about the happiest season of all. It’s an ancient song first sung by the Israelite women we’ve been journeying with these past few paragraphs. But, it’s also made into a new song sung when Jesus wins the final battle at the end of our collective wandering. It’s a song we can sing when we’re grasping for an answer to “What’s new?!” No matter your season, be assured – The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing (Zephaniah 3:17). May you start this year singing a new song with Him: 

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

“Great and amazing are your deeds,

    O Lord God the Almighty!

Just and true are your ways,

    O King of the nations!

Who will not fear, O Lord,

    and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy.

    All nations will come

    and worship you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

                        -Revelation 15:3-4