Day 4

Tuesday of this week (September 22, 2009) marked the Autumnal Equinox and the official start of fall.

One of the things I love the most about living in Virginia is that we truly get to experience the changes in the seasons (without facing extreme weather). Sure, it gets hot and it gets cold here … but we don’t typically experience REAL extremes.

Those who think that a 95 degree day in Virginia is extreme should try surviving a summer in Miami with a car that lacks air-conditioning. My beloved 74’ Camaro got me through college (that is, when it wasn’t sitting in my front yard for lack of parts or service). I bought it from my brother-in-law for a pittance one winter in Miami. Had he tried selling it to me during the summer, he might have had to pay me to take it. It got HOT in that car with all the humidity. I finally attempted ignoring the heat (hey, people walk on coals don’t they?) but that didn’t prevent the blisters on my rear that I’d get sitting on the vinyl seats after an afternoon parked in the South Florida sun. Virginia doesn’t get THAT hot.

Now, those that think it gets too cold in Virginia should spend a day atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire. The average temperature is 48 degrees with a wind speed of 25 mph … in August. If you really want to see bad weather, check them out on a January day where the average temperature is 5 degrees and the average wind speed is 46 mph! The worst weather in the world has been recorded atop that mountain (-47 degrees in January of 1934, and a wind gust of 231 mph on April 12th of that same year!).

We visited Mount Washington twice in my childhood (both in August) during camping expeditions in New Hampshire. There is a weather observatory on top that has an enormous flat roof (with rails) that you can walk around to see the amazing vistas. The times I’ve gone it was rather cold (or as my dad told a visitor on the way up “It is C-O-L-D, COLD.”). Not only was it cold, it was extremely windy, and visibility wasn’t that great either. The wind was so powerful, my cousins and I would take turns atop the roof with our jackets open (using them as sails), seeing how much faster we could run. Let’s just say that a 40 mph tail-wind will do wonders for your sprint speed. We would have to close our jackets by the end of the runs to avoid hitting the rail, flipping off the roof, and ending up somewhere in Ohio.

Getting back to the change in seasons, I love seeing the leaves changing in the fall. I love looking out my window and seeing a snowfield in my backyard during the winter (I reserve other feelings for when I look at my icy driveway …). The spring brings color and life (as well as allergies). And the lazy days of summer herald trees ready and able to offer shade.

Without seasons, life as we know it would not exist. The way our planet functions is through changes. Birth, growth, reproduction, death. Biology is about seasons. Life is about seasons.

On the fourth day of Genesis, we are introduced to the idea that there is a reason for why we have seasons.

To mark changes.

Life is about change.

Change happens to all of us. Even mighty granite mountains are changing. One day in the distant future, our current mountain majesties will be an eroded pile of dust. The oceans change. Temperature and salinity affect aquatic life from the smallest microbe to the largest whale. We are aware of the passage of time because it is something we can measure. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, seasons … and the cycle of seasons continues.

We can take comfort from this. From the fact that time and seasons exists. We take comfort that the present moment is not forever (unless you’re a teenager and you’re certain that the pimple you discovered this morning will doom you for the rest of your humiliated existence). The sun WILL rise tomorrow morning. And God will continue to provide for your needs. He is the Master of the seasons and He is in control of whatever season you find yourself in.

What season do you find yourself in today?

How has God provided for you?

How will you know that the sun has indeed risen again?

Related Verses
Genesis 1:14-19
Then God said, “Let great lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them mark off the seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened. God made two great lights, the sun and the moon—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day.

Job 38:31-41“Can you direct the movement of the stars — binding the cluster of the Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion? Can you direct the sequence of the seasons or guide the Bear with her cubs across the heavens? Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth?
“Can you shout to the clouds and make it rain? Can you make lightning appear and cause it to strike as you direct?
Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind?
Who is wise enough to count all the clouds? Who can tilt the water jars of heaven when the parched ground is dry and the soil has hardened into clods?
“Can you stalk prey for a lioness and satisfy the young lions’ appetites as they lie in their dens or crouch in the thicket?
Who provides food for the ravens when their young cry out to God and wander about in hunger?

Psalm 104:19-24
You made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to set. You send the darkness, and it becomes night, when all the forest animals prowl about.
Then the young lions roar for their prey, stalking the food provided by God. At dawn they slink back into their dens to rest.
Then people go off to their work, where they labor until evening.
O LORD, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all.
The earth is full of your creatures.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.