Seasons

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"There is a time for everything, and a season for activity under the heavens." - Ecclesiastes 3:1

So.

For every time there is a season.

I know all about seasons.

If you've followed the telling of my family's journey, then you know that we've run the gamut of 'seasons'.

Weakness.
Strength.
Death.
Grief.
Joy.
Financial despair.
Unemployment.
Recovery.

We spent four years in what I refer to as the 'desert'.  We resided in a very dry, barren place for a very long time.  No work existed for my husband.  My illness was raging.  People died.  We nearly lost our home.  Our marriage was set to a pattern of test...re-test....test....re-test.  Yet as difficult as the period was, so many lessons were gleaned from our time in the desert.

But which lesson was most important?

That ya gotta have faith?

That love conquers all?

That His love never fails?

That to everything there is a season?

I dunno which one was 'most' important.  They were all important, and God knew that our time in the desert was temporary, yet necessary.  And the same God who delivered Moses and His people out of slavery, so He delivered THIS family out of the desert.

We are now harvesting.  Barren and arid no more, we are reaping.

YES!

My husband is thriving, because he is WORKING!

Our home is SAFE.

Though ailing, I am still HERE.

Reilly and Jake, are....well....Reilly and Jake!  Bringing joy and love to all those who know them.

Very recently, I've gleefully watched my daughter take a turn toward Jesus!  Woohoo!  Heckfire that's a harvest like no other!

And my awesome husband has become a man of God in ways I never thought possible.  Score!

In the past six months, our season has changed.

But today, I realized that it's possible to be 'in' more than one season at a time.

Not just figuratively but literally.

Lemme explain.

I live in Florida.  Recently, we were joyfully blessed with an extended visit from my mother in law.  Grandma was excited to be here.  And she really enjoyed the weather.  Especially since the Great White North has been unusually White this year.  Grandma LOVES to be outside.  Every day, she would go outside and sweep the dead oak leaves from the driveway.

Huh?

It's spring, right?

Yep!

Um, why are there dead leaves in your driveway, Rojo?

BECAUSE.....in Florida......we have fall in....the....SPRING!

Huh?

Yep.

Even though my centuries old Live Oak trees continue to shred their MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of dead leaves, my car is covered with pollen.

Strawberries are in season.

Oranges are blossoming.

The Corn Festival approaches.

Yet the shedding of dead foilage continues.

So, yeah, we are in two 'real' seasons at once, as I explained to Grandma.  It's unusual, sure.

And now I'm finding myself in more than one figurative season.

Strength and Weakness.

Yeah, this is a recurring theme for me, but we've got a new twist, so hang with me, k?

I've been amped lately.  Fighting the good fight.  Having discovered what I believe to be my true purpose, I took the ball and ran with it.  I've gotten plugged in at church, HELPING.  I've been spending more time at my children's school, HELPING.  I finally (!) accepted, after five long years, that I'm not meant to be a provider in this family, but a HELPMATE.  God knew that I would not choose to stop working for the benefit of my family, so He made it happen, whether I liked it or not.  Well, I did NOT like it, Sam I Am.  AT ALL.  Yet.....and it has taken me far too long to see this, to realize it, to accept it and to respect it, because I am...shockingly....stubborn as a mule, BUT...I now know that my husband's life, my children's life, and ultimately MY life are all better because I no longer work.  I wish that my broken body would allow me to do more HELPING, but alas, as I conveyed to someone trying in vain to push me to do more, I do what I can.  And I'm doing more than 'enough'.  I believe that God is satisfied with me there.

Because...........

Of the weakness.  I'm suffering physically.  Gosh I don't like to.  And I realllllllly don't like talking about it.  Because it is chronic, and because it sucks, and because it will not go away.  I've got some big hurdles to leap soon.  And I don't want to jump.

But worse than me and my own corner on agony, someone else is suffering.

Captain Jake Sparrow.

Ouch.  I know.  It hurts me too.  More than you can know.

My little pirate can be the Kryptonite to my Superman, believe me.

Yet he also melts my heart like no other.

A wise man once told me, "Boys love their Mamas".  Wow.  No truer words have ever been said.

Jake ADORES me.  The feeling is, of course, mutual.

And right now, I ACHE for him.

The Sparrow is sick.  I'm not going to aggrandize this.  He isn't going to die.  He doesn't have cancer and no, I'm not starting a website or Facebook page for people to check in daily.  Yes, he is ill.  Yes, it is serious.  Yes, of course he needs prayer.  His illness has a name, and it has a treatment, and it has a cause.  We have isolated two of those three.  It's Eosnophilic Esophagitis, and the treatment is dietary changes with medicine. But we are struggling to determine what food or foods are affecting him.  He has stopped growing.  He has been classified as "failure to thrive".  You darn sure wouldn't know it if you spend any time with him, as he probably burns eighty THOUSAND calories a day, but 'tis true.

But he is suffering.  This I know to be true.  And while I am with him through this, every single step of the way, I am suffering right along with him.  It hurts to watch someone you love suffer.  I can't say this for certain, but I really think it's worse for a parent to experience their child's anguish.  It just plain SUCKS.

In time, Jake will be okay.  We don't know when, but we're told that he will.  I'm counting on the Big Man Upstairs to make it so.  Cuz I gotta have faith.  I got nothing else on this one.  Brand new territory here.

So.

We are reaping as we sow.

Two Swords and Reilly the Red are at the top of their respective ladders, picking the fruit.

Me and Sparrow are in the trenches, digging and disseminating.

To everything there is a season.

And God is surely with us, for He is most certainly NOT against us.

We are united as a family, and we are pointing to Him.  He'll bring us through.

Cuz that's what He does.

He always has.

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