A Season for Every Purpose Under Heaven

If someone were to ask, “Can you name the four seasons?” many of us would probably respond, “Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.” However, fans of singer-songwriters Simon & Garfunkel in the 1960s might answer, “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme,” recalling their hit tune by the same name.

 

And for those who loved music predating the folk-rock duo by a few years, their answer might be, “Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi” – the original members of the singing group, The Four Seasons, with hit songs like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man.” 

 

Spring, summer, autumn and winter are just
some of the seasons we encounter in life.

Of course, there are lots of other seasons, including: football, baseball and basketball; hunting and fishing; and the holiday season, with Halloween already past and Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s looming ahead.

We encounter many different seasons over our lifetimes. At the moment, we’re in the midst of autumn (or fall, if you prefer). The leaves started changing colors weeks ago and are now tumbling to the ground, forcing many of us to get our rakes and leaf blowers out of mothballs. But every one of us is in a different season of life, ranging from infancy and toddlerhood to the teen years and adulthood. 

 

Even for adults, we’re not locked into one season. There are the early years of finding a job, getting married, having kids, becoming established in a career, then preparing for and entering retirement, and finally, adjusting to the joys and challenges life as a senior citizen.

 

This reminds me of another tune from the ‘60s, “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” composed by Bob Seeger and popularized by The Byrds. You might recall its recurring refrain, “To everything turn, turn, turn, there is a season turn, turn, turn, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” 

 

Interestingly, Seeger acknowledged he wrote only a handful of words in the song: “turn, turn, turn,” and “a time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.” Written during the height of the Vietnam war, with tragic reports daily of soldiers killed in battle, it reflected a desperate cry for peace to be restored.

 

The rest of the song, amazingly enough, was taken directly from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, which reads:

“To everything there is a season 
And a time to every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to reap;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down, and a time to build up; 
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; 

A time to mourn, and a time to dance; 
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; 

A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing; 

A time to gain, and a time to lose; 

A time to keep, and a time to throw away;

A time to tear, and a time to sew;

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time of love, and a time of hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace.”

Seeger rearranged some of the words to fit the rhythm and rhyme of his song, but as the passage from the Bible’s wisdom literature states, “to everything there is a season – and a time for every purpose under heaven.” It’s just as relevant today as when King Solomon wrote it thousands of years ago. Beginning each new day, it would be helpful to consider exactly what season of life we happen to be in and what it might take to fulfill its “purpose under heaven.”

 

The interesting thing is, as we encounter each new “season,” we never quite know what to expect. You’d think that after navigating the various stages of our younger years we’d be able to relax and think, “Ah, now I’ve got it made.” But as I have learned and continue to learn, each new stage brings adventures and conundrums of its own. Reminds me of the fellow who was asked by his doctor, “How are you doing?” He replied, “I don’t know – I’ve never been this old before.”

 

This brings to mind another passage, Ephesians 5:15-16, which admonishes us to, “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” This isn’t saying a 24-hour day in itself is evil, but once it’s gone it can’t be recaptured. So, we should try to make the best of it.

 

Some days – and seasons – seem like a breeze, no sweat. Others pose adversities we could never have imagined. But the Scriptures teach that God can use every season of life, whether it’s easy or difficult, to work in us as well as through us for His eternal purposes and our ultimate good.

For Everything There Indeed Is a Season

Did you hear about the teacher who asked little Jimmy to name the four seasons? Having been raised in a family of cooks, Jimmy quickly responded, “Salt, pepper, oregano and garlic.” Probably not exactly what she had in mind.

 

But here we are at the start of another season. Recently I noticed a sign in the fitness area of our local YMCA that read, “Fall Prevention Meeting.” I shrugged my shoulders and thought, “What’s the use? Autumn is going to come, just as it does every year, whether we like it or not.” No way to prevent it, right?

 

Okay, all seriousness aside, the arrival of Fall – along with the other seasons of the year – serves as a reminder that time marches on, that the heat of summer will eventually end and that the chill (or deep-freeze) of winter can’t be too far behind. This reminds me of a passage in the Bible which declares, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

 

Back in the mid-1960s the Byrds, an American rock band, recorded a tune called “Turn! Turn! Turn!” that had been written by Pete Seeger in 1959. The song began, 

“To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep….”

 

Researching the origins of “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” I discovered Seeger had based the lyrics on pieces of text he’d written in his pocket notebook. He described the words he had copied from the Bible as “verses by a bearded fellow with sandals, a tough-minded fellow called Ecclesiastes.” Well, he was partly right. The words came from the book of Ecclesiastes, attributed to Israel’s King Solomon, who almost certainly had a beard.

 

Seeger used the wording of Ecclesiasts 3:1-8 almost verbatim but turned his composition as a protest song of sorts, adding the words, “A time for peace; I swear it’s not too late.” When the Byrds’ version came out during the height of the Vietnam War, it became a smash hit.

 

For those of us who have lived long enough, we know there indeed are seasons to life – many of them. There are the chronological seasons of infancy, toddlerhood, adolescence, the teen years, early adulthood, mature adulthood (at least for some people), and finally, “Wow! You look good for your age!” We go through seasons of schooling, starting and forging careers, and retirement.

 

The remainder of the passage in Ecclesiastes sums the scope of life very concisely: “a time to tear down and a time to build…a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.”

 

But there’s another phrase that quickly follows this passage that’s sometimes overlooked. It says, “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Sometimes as we’re slogging through a particularly difficult season of life, it seems anything but beautiful. But through the wonders of hindsight, we can discover that despite the pain or stress or anxiety that “season” might have caused, God truly was using it to create something beautiful in our lives.

 

In my own life, I’ve lost track of all the many seasons I’ve gone through. Childhood is but a faint memory; my high school and college years I’d describe as youthful foolishness; marriage and parenting have been seasons of much learning, with some lessons still being learned. And since I left full-time employment and became a grandfather, that’s been a completely different season of its own.

 

I’d like to think that, like the apostle Paul, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me” (1 Corinthians 13:11). But I still have my moments, I must admit.

 

The point it, no matter what season of life you find yourself in – in the midst of planting or reaping, laughing or weeping, keeping or throwing away – God does have a purpose for it, even though you might not appreciate what that is until you can view it in retrospect. So if you’re currently mourning, there will yet be a time for dancing and vice versa. To everything – turn, turn, turn – there is a season.