Echoes From the Campfire

[Don Adkisson]

Echoes From the Campfire

     “Why was it, he wondered ruefully, that when a man got of an age where he ought to be able to stand back and breathe good, enjoy what he had built for himself and take the pleasure of turning responsibilities over to his sons, he had to start putting up with things like rheumatism? If it wasn't in his hands, it was in his hips. If it wasn't in his hips, it was in his legs.”
               --Elmer Kelton (Shotgun)

     "I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will bear and save you."
               --Isaiah 46:4 (HCSB)
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I have the little stove on, just to cut the chill of the morning and am looking outside the window by the rocking chair where I often sit and read. We have definitely entered the season of spring. The trees are green, the grass is growing; there are new signs of life everywhere. There have been poems and songs written about the coming of spring and the other seasons.
     There are so many analogies regarding life and the seasons. Springtime--new life. Life begins in the spring; there is hope, there are dreams, there is activity. Then comes summer--the time to work, to put realization into the dreams of the spring. Summer can bring heat and often cause things to wither if there is not enough rain to go with the sunshine. Then we move into autumn, fall--the time of fulfillment. The leaves begin to drop knowing that winter is approaching. Winter--the time of death. Winter can bring with it frost, freezing temperatures, and snow.
     Where are you in the analogy? I read just last week the following: "They bear no fruit until they have stood the storms of winter." (Theodora an early church sage). That is true in nature. Winter must come and there must be a dying before the trees can again bud in the springtime. However, this does not relate of the life of man. Man only has this "one year"--spring, summer, fall, then winter. He is not regenerated along with the calendar. What he does, must be in this one lifetime. A tree may not produce well one year, then the next year there might be a bumper crop. Man does not have this opportunity.
     However, no matter what season you are in the Lord is there with you. He is guiding, teaching, and giving you wisdom and strength to make it through the day and the season. In the springtime you may not have the experience to make wise decisions and are too zealous and always in a hurry to reach the next stage of life. When autumn shows up you wonder and say, I didn't think 50 (or 60) would come quite so soon, but in this season of life there are things to be done for the Lord. In my youth I used to run around the basepaths; I would play with reckless abandon. Now, as I move from autumn into winter I find myself contemplating much more the things of the Lord. I see Him in the seasons, and when I look back and I can find Him in each season of my life--His grace is evident.

D.C. Adkisson