Happy Friday, Friends!
Believe it or not, my boys went back to school yesterday! I cannot believe the summer is over and another school year has begun.
And it’s been making me think about a conversation I had with my dad a few weeks ago while we were in the mountains. He and I were watching the boys splash in the pool, and I was telling him about the two things I had been holding as the summer was coming to a close: This was truly the first summer I didn’t want to pull my hair out, AND I am very ready for a routine again.
I have finally stopped panicking at the thought of a free day, the boys are at ages where they actually want to play the same things (even though wrestling matches are still constant), and I have learned to pace our calendar in a way that fits our family. But I also see the fatigue of not having a routine seep into their little bodies, the longing for sports to be back, and the readiness to see their school friends again.
As I unpacked this with my dad, he said simply, “Well, summer can’t last forever… and it wasn’t meant to. You’ve had a great one, and now it’s time to move on.” I nodded quietly and have been sitting with that thought for a few weeks now.
And here is what’s really landed for me: time scares me in both directions. It goes so fast, and yet I am always looking forward to the next thing coming.
So as this school year begins, I am learning to… close a good season well.
It took a few weeks, but as I thought through what my dad said, it turns out this idea is older than both of us… It’s actually pulled straight from the Bible itself:
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
Ecclesiastes 3:11
God gives us beautiful, abundant seasons that make it hard to move forward from, and the truth is, in a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to. We have eternity set in our hearts. We are creatures built for forever, living inside seasons that end. That's why the fast-moving scares us, and the next thing pulls at us.
Because we are creatures built for eternity, I think we are constantly doing what the last part of this verse states: we are trying desperately to see what God is doing from beginning to end. Just as we talked about in Isaiah 55 last week, God’s ways are higher than ours, and even though we want to know what’s coming, we are not granted that insight.
So here is what closing a good season well asks of us: to trust God with what’s coming and to praise him for what’s just passed us.
To know that the ache we feel over the push and pull of time is a part of why we should be so grateful to Jesus for his saving grace, for the fact that one day, when we are in our eternal home, these aches will be satisfied.
My dad wasn’t trying to be profound that afternoon by the pool. He was just telling me the truth: summer can’t last forever, and it wasn’t meant to.
And I felt that ache again yesterday morning, watching my boys walk into a new school year. Grateful for the summer behind us, ready for the rhythm ahead, and still a little unsettled by how fast it all moves. Turns out I don’t have to pick one. This summer was beautiful in its time, and its time is done.
Until next week, Blair
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