Embracing the Seasons of Life

Good afternoon, ladies. It is wonderful to be here with you. I appreciate Mr. Creech, or as I call him, Josh, inviting me to spend the afternoon and to share God's Word with everyone here. I've had to call him Josh since, let's see, he was born, so that's going to be a hard one for me to break, but I'll try to be respectful in that way.

Thank you, ladies, for the special music, too. Wherever everyone's scattered, it's beautiful to hear in all ladies' choir. The voices are just unique in that way, and so thank you for sharing that, and I think it'll tie in beautifully with the sermon today. So thank you for that and for the work that went into it. About 11 years ago, our daughter, Kelsey, was 7 years old, and we had the opportunity to attend the feast in Florida. And so, as a parent who got to enjoy Disney World as a kid myself, I wanted to, and we wanted to take Kelsey down to Disney World at that age.

She had become old enough that she was fun to hang out with. She had some memories. She was able to start developing memories at that age that would hopefully last her a lifetime. So we added on an extra couple days to do, to visit Orlando, because we wanted to see some sights and to take her to the Magic Kingdom, right? And so we had one day available for us to go, and we made our plans. It was made months in advance, of course, but we had one day that was on the schedule to see Disney World, and so we were there in Orlando.

We enjoyed, I think, the Sabbath or the Day of Atonement, if I remember right, as well there. And so the one day's appearing. It's the evening before. We're in our hotel room winding down, and actually we went out to dinner that night, and it started to rain while we were at dinner.

And we're watching the weather forecasts and everything and just keeping an eye on it. But when we got back to our hotel that evening, the day before we were going to go to Disney World, it was pouring cats and dogs out. I mean, it was just downpour. It was one of those where you look at the radar, and the entire width of the state is nothing but red and yellow as the storm was going through the evening before.

And so we have Kelsey. She's seven. Her mom and dad are there, too. And we're praying. So we said, well, let's pray. Let's ask God to help us more, because weather's nothing for God. Weather's easy. We'd seen other times that he intervened for us and provided a way of enjoying what our plans were by taking care of the weather. So we prayed as a family, asking God to help clear up the weather for the day tomorrow, because we only had one day. There was no wiggle room. Tickets were already bought, and we had to get on over to the fee soon after.

And so we went to sleep, trusting God and knowing that whatever his will would be would be fine. And we woke up the next morning. Our alarms went off, and I walked over to the window. I liked the hotel. Pulled it open quickly to see what it was going to be.

And it was raining even harder that morning than it was the evening before. I'm not exaggerating. It was like some of the hardest coming down rain. There was thunder a little bit. It was dark gray skies. And I looked at Laura and said, how is it? And I said, it's not going to be very... it's going to be a wet one. So we went ahead and got ready, because we already had tickets. We're going to go. We're going to make the best of the day we have.

And we're standing in the lobby about to get our car, and then we realized we didn't even bring pachos. So we go... they have the hotel where you're staying that was prepared. They're not... we're not the first ones to go on a rainy day. They had pachos, so we bought them, and we made our way over. And while we're going, the weather starts to clear up. It looks like... and we're like, okay, this is not bad.

And we get our little ferry across the river and the lake that they had there over to the entrance, and we walk through. It's still gray and everything else, but it's not really raining too much. So we do what everybody does with the seven-year-old. We hit the restrooms first. That's the number one important thing, right? And as the ladies, as Kelsey and Laura are coming out, I'm standing out there, and the skies open up again. I mean, it is just coming down just as hard as I've ever seen rain come down. And they come out, and we all look at each other like, well, this is our Disney day.

So we poncho up. I had a backpack on, put the poncho on, make sure it covers everything we can. You got the hood on the poncho, and we start our way down Main Street, USA, which is that as you come in the gate where all the shops are, and we're making our way down, making the best of it that we can. I mean, it is just coming down. And there's a point that I look down, and I see Kelsey. I'm holding her hand. I see Kelsey kind of jump into a puddle. I mean, it was more like a river, but she jumps into a puddle.

And my first reaction, like any good parent, is, no, don't jump it. You're going to get your shoes. And then I stop. And in that moment, because I'd already said no, and she looks up at me like, are you the craziest guy? Like, you really think I'm not going to get my shoes wet today.

And so I stop myself, mid-sentence, look at her, and realize we're all going to get wet today. How many kids get an opportunity to jump in the puddles on Main Street, USA, at Disney? I mean, seriously, how many kids get to do that? I mean, we jump in the puddles at home, but this is Main Street, USA. So the three of us start jumping from puddle to puddle, making the best of the day that we could. And it was one of those memories thinking back, like it was just so touching and so much fun to be part of. On a little side note, we are a first, as you get to the end of Main Street, I think that's where they have the Dumbo Ride. And that was our first thing we did. And it's a two-person, two-seater ride, and Laura and Kelce went on to do that one. And so I'm standing under this overhang, right? And it is just still coming down. They are their shoes. It was like a pool inside Dumbo. And I'm standing there just watching them go around, and I look down, and there's this little bird underneath the overhang with me, about two feet away, looking at me. And I think he's saying, like, is this okay? Because I don't really want to be out there either. And I look down, and I'm like, we made eye contact. And I'm like, I'm good. I understand what you're doing. You're trying to get out of the rain. I appreciate this overhang. It was an adventure, to say the least.

Now, you're not going to find in scriptures God's instructions to jump in the puddles you encounter in your walk on life. But Laura and I consider the theme, as we consider the theme for this weekend, the seasons of a woman's life. We couldn't help but note the connection between the theme and how weather doesn't always cooperate with our plans. Just like the weather we encountered on our trip to Disney World, weather impacts our life around the clock. Some of the effects are mild in nature and may hardly be noticed at all because we have roofs over our head, we have heat and air conditioning in our homes. But at other times, weather can have a severe or even extreme impact on our lives. Simply put, there are some seasons which are our favorites.

Some seasons of the year we really don't like very much at all. I'm a spring guy when I'm a gardener. I love getting out and planting things when they grow up. When the trees come out and bloom and the flowers pop up, I feel like the year has started. It's a joy for me. It's a little bit sad when fall gets here because everything starts to go dormant. Things die off, go brown. The colors go from vibrant green to a little bit of a dull color. Laura, she loves summer. It can't get hot enough for her. So being a Michigander, her whole life, winters are hard. It's kind of surprising. You'd think somebody who grew up in Michigan would love winter. Well, that's her struggle. And so we all have these seasons that we enjoy and some seasons that we struggle with.

Now we can try to fight the weather, but do we really have an impact? We can be upset or frustrated, but in the end, does it change the weather that we're impacted by? So on the time I have with you for the second message, I'd like us to consider the importance of embracing the seasons of life. If you like titles, the title is embracing the seasons of life.

As we consider the four seasons of the year themselves, they are full of unique weather patterns of their own. One real thing about, like Mr. Creech mentioned, about living in the Midwest is we get the blessing to experience all four seasons and really their fullness. They're almost evenly divided through the year. We get to enjoy the spring as things start coming back to life. We get to enjoy the summer and the heat and the things that come along with that. Then as the year starts to wind down and some prefer some favorite season of the year is fall, because of the beauty and the crispness in the air and being able to have bonfires. And then some love the tranquility and the peace and the winter with that snow. There's nothing quite as quiet as when you take your dogs for a walk in the middle of a snowstorm and it's just like silent around you. And then before we know it, winter's coming to a close. Spring is back on its way in.

But on a parallel note, the reality is that we all encounter seasons of our life that include types of physical and spiritual, and I'll put in quotes, weather, right? Some we enjoy and some we really don't care for at all. And just like we know that we have no real control over the physical rain and snowstorms we encounter, we often have little control over the seasons of our life.

For example, just try to get your children to stop aging so they'll stay that cute little age that loves to crawl up in your lap. Just try to get them to stop aging so that you don't have an empty nest someday when they want to go off to college. We can't stop that. Or try to unwind the medical diagnosis that you get from a doctor's visit where the news is not what you wanted to hear. Or, as I know many in the room have experienced, try to remove the sting that comes from losing a loved one in your life. In these seasons of change, it's easy to wonder or even question what God is doing in our lives. Some of these seasons just flat out don't make sense, and we struggle to see how this can be part of God's plan for our life. We know God's grace is without limits, but in certain seasons we can feel distant from God or maybe even ignored. I'd like to focus in again on the aspect of embracing the seasons of our lives. I'm no way an expert on this subject. I'm one who lived a little bit of life and through God's grace been able to find the other side of many of my and Laura's experiences. But embracing the challenging seasons was not our first go-to response.

We did what we, I think everybody else pretty much does. We fought the seasons that we didn't like, and we fought hard. And after getting exhausted from the fight and the wear and tear on our body, we realized this season was just our new normal. It was our reality, and if we didn't come to grip and embrace the season, we knew we were going to continue to struggle. But why embrace something that I disdain so much? There is a power that comes from embracing the seasons of life because you get to control the response you have towards that season. Embracing the new season of our lives is something that we have had to learn how to do more effectively over the years. It doesn't mean today that we always handle everything perfect, nor does it mean that we relish in the revealing of a new season. But embracing the new season has allowed us to take a step back and to look for ways that God will reveal himself to us and support us on our walk forward. I believe this subject will, of course, be, I think it's already been touched on in some of the the sessions this morning, and I believe it will continue to be touched on as you go through the weekend. But I'd like to leave everyone with a couple of real-life examples that we've been able to learn through our life of embracing the seasons. The first one being, through the fire comes change.

Just like the natural seasons we experience through the year, there are some seasons of life we enjoy, and again, some that are not our favorites. And then there are other seasons we just dislike completely due to their life-altering or damaging effects. But the reality is, if we stay still in only one season, no new growth would develop both physically in the world around us and spiritually in our lives. Let's look at Romans 8 and verse 28. You can actually just put that in your notes. Romans 8 and verse 28. This is where Paul says, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. We know that all things work together for good. Okay, but as we consider the extreme damaging effects of fire, how can this all work out for good? There's an article entitled, How Trees Survive and Thrive After Fire by Luba Mullen, and it's from the National Forest Magazine summer fall issue of 2017.

It says, Big or small, gradual or sudden, change rhythmically punctuates human life. In the natural world, change is just as intrinsic and pattern-based. Seasonal fluctuations. Excuse me! I want to take a drink. Take a break. Seasonal fluctuations. In temperature, shifts in sunlight, and natural disturbances like fire are all part of nature's cycle. Most people resist change, especially change they consider destructive. Perhaps that's why uncontrolled wildfires have been suppressed since the early 1900s. Fires can be damaging, and its effects certainly scar one's verdant landscapes. But this destruction can also prove beneficial. In recent decades, ecologists and land managers have realized more fully how important fire is to the natural patterns of many ecosystems. This pattern known as fire regime is different for each ecosystem. Each fire regime is important to maintaining forest and grassland health, even if it seems harmful at first glance. Then the article goes on to describe some beneficial aspects, one being thick bark that develops on trees. Trees in fire prone areas develop thicker bark, in part because the bark does not catch fire or burn easily. It also protects the insides of the trunk, the living tissues that transport water and nutrients from heat damage during the high frequency, low intensity fires. Ponderosa pine is a great example. The signature tree in the western United States has a thick flaky bark, sometimes compared to a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. The species also drops lower branches as the tree grows older, which helps prevent fire from climbing up the tree and burning the grain needles higher up. Another aspect, fire induced sprouts. This fire survival strategy allows for the complete destruction of above ground growth. Typically, species that regenerate by re-sprouting after they've burned have an extensive root system. Dormant buds are protected underground and nutrients stored in the root system allow quick sprouting after the fire. Serotinous cones is another aspect. In environments where hot, fast moving fires are frequent, some pine species have very thick, hard cones that are literally glued shut with a strong resin. These serotinous cones can hang on a pine tree for years, long after the enclosed seeds mature, only when a fire sweeps through, melting the resin, do these heat-dependent cones open up, releasing the seeds that are then distributed by wind and gravity. The last aspect that it shares in the article was fast activated seeds, or fire, excuse me, activated seeds, as opposed to serotinous cones which protect enclosed seeds during a fire, the actual seeds of many plants in fire-prone environments need fire directly or indirectly to germinate. These plants produce seeds with a tough coating that can lay dormant, awaiting a fire for several years. Whether it's in that intense heat of the fire, exposure to chemicals from smoke, or exposure to nutrients in the ground after a fire, these seeds depend on fire to break their dormancy.

If we were to personify...

Shout it out. Personify! Thank you! You guys are gonna be my helpers this afternoon.

You guys got me nervous here. I've never spoken in front of an entire, almost, audience of ladies.

If we were to personify... Man!

Okay, if we were to make a fire like us for a moment, the forest would not be happy to see a fire coming. If it was possible, the forest would try to grow legs and run as quickly from the fire to avoid pain and discomfort. The forest would avoid the fire at all costs. But in many ways, we too would avoid that fire seasons of our lives if we had the option. But as life often goes, we don't get much of a warning before a new season starts. And our life, just like those forest fires, start pretty suddenly, and they can be very devastating. But without the fire, new growth just can't come. And as we begin to embrace the new season, and as we have the opportunity to talk with God about the difficulty, as we draw closer to Him, we have the opportunity to see the new growth areas that occur in our lives. So through the fire comes change. The next aspect to consider is through the season comes understanding. Let's look at Romans 5 in verse 1. Romans 5 in verse 1. Keep this in mind as we read through this passage about, through the season comes understanding. Here the Apostle Paul shares in Romans 5 verse 1, he says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3, And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character, and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which was given to us. Now for those who are in the midst of severe challenge or trial right now, this verse may not bring a lot of comfort at this present time. The development of these attributes does not come from living an easy breezy life. But for those who have embraced a difficult season of life, have walked with God through the season, and have prayed for understanding about what they are going through, much can be gleaned. The reality is we can only truly understand a season of life by living that season of life. Turn back, or towards the back, a couple chapters to 2nd Corinthians 1 and verse 3. Paul kind of sums up this aspect that we can only truly understand a season of life by living that season of life in the words he shares in 2nd Corinthians here in chapter 1 and verse 3 and 4. Paul says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comforts, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Paul is describing one of the deep areas of spiritual growth that can come from a difficult season, the ability to relate, to understand, and to support one another in our walk as family, as Mr. Creech alluded to and shared with us in the first message. In a blog post by Andrea Gardner, I found this article, this blog post, several years back. It's entitled, To the Woman Behind Me in Line at the Grocery Store, and it's on True Stories of a Midwife Yankee.wordpress.com. This is her blog.

Now, I'm going to be upfront with you guys. I've read this multiple times over the last three days, and I struggle to get through it. So just be patient with me, but it just brings to such a beautiful illustration of this aspect of through the season comes understanding. So again, she starts her blog post by saying, Dear Woman Behind Me in Line at the Grocery Store, you don't know me. You have no clue what my life has been like since October 1st, 2013. So she wrote this in 2014, just a little bit after this experience. She says, You have no clue that my family, what my family has gone through, and that we've gone through the wringer. You have no clue that we have faced unbelievable hardship. You have no clue we have been humiliated, humbled, and destitute. You have no clue that I have cried more days than not, that I fight against bitterness taking control of my heart. You have no clue that my husband's pride was shattered.

You have no clue that my kids have had the worries of an adult on their shoulders. You have no clue their innocence was snatched from them for no good reason. You know none of this.

What you do know is that I tried to buy my kids some food.

And that the EBT machine was down so I couldn't buy that food. I didn't have any cash or my debit card with me. I only had my SNAP card. All you heard was me saying, No, don't hold it for me. My kids are hungry now and I have no other way of paying for this. You didn't judge me.

You didn't snarl. You didn't snarl. Maybe you should have less kids.

You didn't say, Well, get a job and learn to support yourself.

You didn't look away at embarrassment or shame for me. You didn't make any assumptions at all.

This is the hard part.

What you did was you paid that $17.38 grocery bill for us. You gave my kids bananas, yogurt, apple juice, cheese sticks, and a peach, iced tea for me, a rare treat, and splurge. You let me hug you and promise through my tears that I will pay this forward. I will pay someone else's grocery bill for them.

That $17.38 may not have been a lot for you, but it was priceless to us. The kids in my car couldn't stop gushing about you, our angel in disguise. They prayed for you.

They prayed you would be blessed. You restored some of our lost faith. One simple and small action changed our lives. You probably have forgotten about us by now, but we have not forgotten about you. You will forever be part of us, even though we don't even know your name. You have no clue how grateful and embarrassed that I am that we pay for all of our food with SNAP. Only those closest to us know why we are on SNAP. They know my husband is a hard worker who was laid off after 17 years in a management position with his former company. They know we were moved from our home to a new state, only to be left homeless since the house we had came with the job he lost. Only those closest to us know my husband works part-time while looking tirelessly for more. That he has submitted more applications than he has received interviews for, and it's not easy for a 40-something year old to find a job that will support his family of five kids. You know none of this, but you didn't let that stop you from being compassionate and generous to someone you have never met. To the woman behind me at the grocery store, you have no idea how much we appreciate you. You have no idea the impact you had on my kids. You have no idea how incredibly thankful I am for you. Your action may have been small, but to us it was monumental. Thank you. Thank you for not judging us. Thank you for giving my kids a snack when they were quite hungry.

Thank you. Just thank you. Forever, Andrea, the woman in front of you. Thank you. Andrea, the woman in front of you at the grocery store with a cart full of kids who are no longer hungry.

I can't do it! I can't get through this one time!

I can't. I've tried. I've tried. I've even prayed about it. Obviously, Andrea was going through a really challenging season of her life.

Yet there was someone alongside of her who was willing to be a support. And for Andrea, through the challenging season, she learned and understood what it meant to be jobless, to have a family of hungry kids, and to see the kindness of another person.

Part of embracing the season is allowing someone to come alongside you to help you and to serve you. Even if it's embarrassing because you should be able to manage things yourself, right?

Or even if it's humbling because we may need help in an intimate way.

Even if it's fill in the blank, what emotion would keep you from letting someone else come alongside and help you in a time of need? I think we all could come up with a list, right?

Sir, there are two sides to understanding in this season, this second season that we're talking about. One, for the person in their new season, right? This new experience that they're going through in their own life, this new trial, tragedy, disappointment, disappointment, that they really didn't understand what it was like to go through until they went through this. And then there's the other side for those in our spiritual family that God is prompting to help us weather those storms.

Maybe it's someone who's gone through the same thing themselves.

Maybe it's someone who supported someone through that in a very intimate way. And so they saw with their own eyes and their own hands what it's like to go through something extremely difficult. Maybe they haven't done it, gone through it themselves, but they've been there hands-on with someone else.

So through the season and through enduring through the season comes understanding.

The last aspect we'll consider is that in the season, we can feel alone.

There are seasons of life where we can feel very alone.

This can be spiritually, this can be physically, or emotionally alone. We can feel like no one understands and there's no one to walk through the season with us.

We may even feel like God is not there to help us through a season.

Let's look at Matthew 14 in verse 22.

Matthew 14 verse 22. This is the story of Peter walking on the water.

The account opens up here in verse 22 by saying, Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat, and to go before him onto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up onto the mountain by himself to pray. Now when evening came, so now it's dark, he was alone there. And as the disciples were following Christ's instructions, what happened?

You could say the seasons changed. Verse 24, But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. Has anybody ever been in a boat on a body of water at night?

Yeah, I, a few of us have. It's kind of unsettling for me, because surrounded by this darkness, this unknown of what's out there, you can't really see anything, because way off onto the shorelines where the lights are, it can be a little bit unsettling, at least for this guy.

And then you add in a storm. I've been on the water when you can hear the thunder off in the distance. The lightning can start to be seen, and you're trying to figure out how are we going to navigate, what are we going to do. It can become unsettling, and here they are in their boat. A storm has come in. They were probably, it was dark, they were probably even because of the storm, unable to see if they were even going in the right direction. As a body of believers, the same happens to us. Events occur in our midst that buffet us around. We get knocked on one side or the other moments later to just only get knocked around again. Our direction, our path, may not seem clear to us. We may ask ourselves the questions, what do I do? Where do I go for help? But in the midst of this challenge, the disciples were facing, Christ came to them. Verse 25, now in the fourth watch of the night, which would have been either between sometime between 3 and 6 a.m., Jesus went to them walking on the sea. So now they've spent most of the, well, pretty much all night, on this body of water, the storm rolling in, being buffeted around, not knowing the direction they're going. And just before sunrise, sometime, Jesus came out.

And Christ made himself known to the disciples as He makes Himself known to us when we seek Him and our Father. Jesus never lost sight of the disciples. Even though they were out on this body of water, they could not see Him. He knew exactly where they were. And He begins to walk out to them in verse 26. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it is a ghost! And they cried out for fear. The storm is raging, the boat's rocking, there's mist in the air, it's dark. They can't make out, it's Jesus. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, be of good cheer, it is I, do not be afraid. And in the midst of this whole account, this story that we have, the disciple Peter did a supernatural thing. He walked on water. Verse 28, and Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And he said, so he said, Come. And when Peter had just come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. Now, I can't stand here and say that I've ever walked on the water myself. But I can say, in the midst of extreme situations of life, I was enabled to do supernatural things from time to time. Have you ever witnessed someone going through such a severe trial, yet they are able to do things that you're just like, where did that strength come from? That attitude, that heart, the cheer, even though you're like, you have nothing to cheer about right now, but yet, they didn't let that hold them back. Every step that Peter took away from the support that boat provided, every step was a supernatural step of faith. Every voluntary step took Him further and further from the physical boat, further from the physical protection, further from what this world offers. Because of the faith that Peter had in Jesus, in the midst of challenge, he was able to walk on water towards Christ. But Peter walking on water isn't the end of the story here. As Peter was walking, what happened next? He began to sink. Verse 30, but when he saw, notice these action words, notice these things directly talking about Peter, when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid, and he beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me!

Because Peter is human, just like the rest of us, because he has fears and the inability to just do everything perfect, the elements happening around him started to distract him. Peter became fearful and distracted by the things going on around him. In my Mike Phelps's mind eye, I envision that he was full of faith walking across that water, taking those steps, going further away from the protection that the boat offered, and then a wave hit him from the side that he didn't see coming. The water splashed up in his face, and suddenly he blinked for the first time.

And when he did, he realized everything that was happening around him, that he realized he was actually walking on water. And he realized how far away from the boat he was, and how this is just not supposed to be the way that one goes on with their life. Just like Peter, sometimes we can get blindsided while in the midst of a new season of life, it knocks us off balance. Our faith in God is tested. And this isn't necessarily because of anything that we did wrong. Sometimes these things just happen in life. But in the midst of Peter taking his eyes off God, what I believe is the most powerful part of this message occurred. Christ never took his eyes off Peter. Never.

Verse 31, it says, and immediately, notice that word, immediately. Let's not miss that one. Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? Jesus knew exactly where Peter was. As a parent, having a little kid running around my feet and trying to do things and they're tripping, and you go to catch him, and you miss him by this much, right? And they fall, and they get skinned up a little bit, banged up, and you're like, oh, I was so close. Jesus doesn't miss us when we fall.

He's not too far away where it's like if I would have only been one step closer, I would have been able to catch him. Jesus knew exactly what was going on with Peter. At the exact moment, Peter's faith began to weaken. Verse 32, and when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those who were in the boat came and worshiped him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God. As we embrace the new season of life, we realize we are never truly alone. Due to the stress or the distractions, we might feel a distance between us and God, yet is God really that far from us? He's no further than he was ever from Peter in our lives.

His eyes glued directly on us, watching every step being with us in every single moment.

When we sense our physical limitations and we feel our physical weakness, God is not far from us. When we struggle with complete faith in God, God is not far from us. When we struggle to understand why something is happening in our life, God is not far from us. He's right there extending His hand to us just as Christ reached out and caught Peter.

Christ did not allow Peter to slip completely under the waves of the storm and to be lost forever. He stretched out His hand and He caught him. In the seasons of life that we go through, we are never alone. The trip that we took to Disney World with Kelsey in 2011 is one of those life highlights for our family. It's one where she had the princess lunch in the castle, wearing her cute little yellow bell dress. It's also the one where I got her to go with me on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad for her first roller coaster. The one that she was pretty upset with me afterwards getting off, and she didn't really want to talk to me much more that day.

It's also the one that started out in a complete washout, and we thought the day was going to be ruined. What we didn't know, though, was we were going to get to see a miracle that day.

While the first half of the day was this downpour like we've never experienced, all of a sudden the sky clears, sun comes out, and we're watching on our phones the radar, and the radar is not making sense. I really wish I could have been in some of those newsrooms in Orlando that day talking to the weather guys and weather ladies, because I want to know how they would have explained what happened. Starting about west of Orlando, the rain never proceeded east.

It changed and started going north. I think it was southwest or south north. It was coming directly and then just kind of started going a different direction around. Now, I'm not God, as you guys know. He can pronounce everything that he puts in his notes.

But there's no doubt in my mind that God performed a miracle to help us redeem that day.

These are little things that God does. Weather for us, those little answered prayers, those fingerprints of God on our life that we know he was there, and he's in those moments with us. In the end, the memories are there not because the weather turned out just as we hoped for and prayed for. The memory is there because of the spiritual lesson God taught all three of us and that a moment that we embrace jumping in the puddles on Main Street, USA. The lesson of embracing the seasons of life has been one that has helped us establish our ability as a family to go forward when the seasons change. Embracing the seasons of life has changed our perspective and strengthened our relationship with God, and embracing the seasons has allowed us to recognize that through the fire comes change, through the season comes understanding, and in the season we are never alone.

Let's close in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7.

2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7.

Again, the Apostle Paul shares these words.

Verse 16.

And then chapter 5 and verse 1.