Genesis 8:22 The Gift of Seasons
“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall never cease. (NKJV).
When God created the earth, He made provision for seasons—different weather patterns for different times of the year. Interestingly, He did not cause the seasons by moving the earth closer to and farther from the sun to change the seasons, and He did not make day and night by cloaking the sun or causing it to cease to shine at night. No, He tilted the earth about 23 degrees from upright on its axis, and He caused the earth to rotate so that day and night occur because of the spinning of the earth. Because of God’s creation plan, there is always daylight and there is always night time somewhere on earth. Because of the tilting of earth’s axis, the seasons are reversed between the northern and the southern hemispheres. I’ve always found it difficult to think of people in Australia going to the beach on Christmas, but it is their summer time. When our trees in the northern hemisphere are beginning to bloom in the spring, the trees in Australia are changing colors for fall. One of the important results of this tilted axis and season is that it is always growing season somewhere, and it’s always harvest time somewhere.
As Christians we experience seasons in our spiritual lives. We experience times of harvest because there are times of planting if we don’t forget to plant. I’ve recognized times in my life when I have been busy planting and then working the fields preparing them for harvest. And when harvest comes, my activities are different. It’s interesting to note that some people are very good at planting while others are excellent at harvesting. Neither one experiences his best results without the other. Perhaps the skills needed in the two activities are somewhat different. So, should I feel bad if I don’t experience a large harvest of souls by my work at harvest time? No, I may have been the one who planted, watered, and fed the plants in preparation for harvest. We tend to focus on harvest and the great harvesters, but without great planters, the harvest would not be as big. God’s kingdom needs both, and that’s why God gives different gifts to different people.
I have also experienced times of lower activity, and that time, winter, is usually thought of as the time when nothing happens. But those are the times when we are rested, fed, and enriched by our Lord. Those who are going full tilt 24 hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year seem to wear down sooner. God provided a time of rest for us, and it is important that we use that time to let Him love us tenderly, and prepare us for our next intense time of effort on His behalf. It is a marvelous privilege to be a farmer in the fields of God, and to do our best, we need to observe our personal seasons just as the earth does.