WHAT WILL BE OUR EXCUSE?

WHAT WILL BE OUR EXCUSE?

THE SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, AND 

WINTER OF OUR LIVES

     Whether we live in a multiple season area or not, we are aware of the differences between Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, and these seasons teach us many things about the journey of our lives. We were all given freedom by the Lord to obey or disobey, to do good or evil, to believe or not believe, to live in hope or abandon hope. Because our freedom is great, so are the  responsibilities which come with our freedom are great.

     In the Springtime of our lives we are usually lively,  active, alert and inquisitive, loving life and this  time of life is accompanied with vigo-rous youth increasing as we reach teen and adult ages.  Our many thoughts 

AGE BIRTH TO 29 YEARS
would be on professional careers or business opportunities, marriage possibilities and a variety of other things that youth contemplates. Our moral condition varies according to our bringing up  and the friends we choose.

      We increasingly become more mature, and usually by the time we reach about thirty years, having leaving behind ignorance and frivolity of youth, leaving spring we enter the Summer of our lives. By this time we are either married or are thinking of it, education is completed or almost, and we move on to other mature endeavors. Some will be employed in careers or businesses which they freely chose and strive to work diligently to achieve success.  The youth and Spring of our lives having passed and we now enter the Summer of our lives we have great expectations.  We may raise a family and we watch our children entering the world following our footsteps on the same paths. We soon see our children as they enter the Spiring of their lives and understand how the cycle of life repeats.

     As our Summer passes and  we grow older the Autumn of life comes sooner than we expected. We may see a few grey hairs, experience some aches and pains, som1e

AGE 30 TO 50 YEARS
 forgetfulness, doctor’s visits, medication, wear eyeglasses or hearing aids, etc.  There is much to remind us that we are now entering the Autumn of our lives and winter is certain to follow. Our children now merrily celebrate the Spring of their lives as we did, and we see older people  who are already in the winter of their lives. It is in this winter that they begin one after another, like the leaves and flowers wilting, dying and leaving this world, realizing that our winter is certain to come. It is interesting that flowers wilt and die and turn ugly and without form, while leaves die and survive in beautiful colors.  But our winter will be much different because God gave us freedom and responsibility. To those who choose the right way, He offers us something far better than this world, a new world where there is no crying or sighing, no pain or sorrow, but lifer everlasting

 Examining nature surrounding us, we see similar things happening everywhere.  In springtime the trees and flowers and other plants, burst into a new and vigorous life.  They are

AGE 52 TO 65 YEARS
 actually transformed after dying and dried up from the effects of winter into a new life – it is a resurrection! For we watch as lifeless dried up branches bring forth new life. We  see in the trees the nests of birds and their newborns in their nest, mouths wide open seeking their food. Flowers of every shade and odor are everywhere and the sun shines down enhancing their beauty. Living things both small and great cry out in spring:  Look I was dead and am alive!  The abundant life of Spring transforms the death of trees and plants  new resurrected life. Birds, creeping things, cattle, beasts, and fish multiply, crops spring up  everywhere, all strategically designed to feed the race of man. Life is abundant and everything is now replenished.

     All this life in nature testifies to the existence of the Creator and Giver of all life, clearly demonstrating His Providence over all creation, for nothing He has forgotten nothing, from the smallest insect to the great beasts, but above all other creatures God remembers mankind who He created in His image. All things are born into the Spring of their lives, and they gradually mature entering into the summer and autumn where things begin to change and winter approaches, Then we see flowers die and trees lose every sign of life, branches become brittle and lifeless appearing to be dead. But we except and are certain that there will be a resurrection in the Spring, as there is in every spring.

    In the Spring of our lives, the Lord calls out to us to look around and behold the beauty He has bestowed out of love on us. Just realizing this should cause us to be grateful to  Him with thanks and adoration because He is good and the only Lover of man.  In the Summer of our lives, He continuously urges us to abandon our frivolity, and turn to Him who will have us account  for what we have believed and what we have done. In the summer of our lives we are still quite strong and able to respond to His call to embrace love, beauty and eternal life. He gives us bright flowers with sweet odors, birds with their musical cries, green leaves of spring and colored leaves of Autumn. 

Have we responded?

    The Creator will harvest all of us sometime in the cold winter of our lives. Those who held firmly to their faith in the true Christ and His true Church will enter eternal life and be 

AGE 66 TO 110 YEARS
resurrected into a perpetual springtime;  death will no longer exist. There are some who are taken from this world in the Spring of their lives, others in the Summer or Autumn, and the rest in the Winter of their lives. Not one of us knows the time of our departure, but we are commanded by our Lord to\ be ready and  watch! The Lord alone knows who, when and why and does not share this knowledge with us.

It is to our advantage to turn to the sweetest Jesus in the Springtime of our lives, falling down in repentance, and changing direction if we are not on the right path;  then we will enjoy His protection and help in every season. But we should not  give up if we delayed, even until the Autumn of life, for our repentance is acceptable at every hour and in every season.  If some are now in the winter of their lives, hurry while you are able to respond to the call of God to all mankind in every season of their lives. Are you a Sinner? Then you have hope for   He came to offer repentance to sinners and with confession and forgiveness He offers everlasting life.

SPRING THAT NEVER ENDS

    This is the reason for the existence of the Church which Christ founded, and is today known as the Orthodox Church. Through her Christ calls out to the human race: “Come to me all you who are heavily laden and I will give rest to your souls.”  In this life there exists the hope which is attainable through faith in Jesus Christ and baptism in His Church, but if we are neglectful; we must be aware that after death comes judgment, which no one can escape, and every man will be judged by what he has done.  This call to everyone at every season to repentance and baptism is continually cried out through the Church of Christ. It is the same cry made by John the Forerunner and Baptist, and by Christ himself, when he began His ministry: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here!”