It is logical to think of our lives in terms of seasons. David said in Psalm 23 that the righteous would “bear fruit in their season.” His son Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:1 “that to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven.”
A common assumption in our culture is that springtime corresponds to our youth, summer is our adult life, fall is retirement, and winter is old age. One problem with that model is that it can lead to some wrong conclusions.
In studying the Bible, most things should be taken literally, not figuratively. God was quite precise in writing His Word. It means what it says and says what it means. In speaking of seasons in the agricultural sense, fruit trees have many cycles, not just one.
There’s More Than One Season
Viewing life from the secular model with only one cycle of seasons, there is only one season of summer in which we bear fruit—the working, adult years. The fruit is primarily the income earned during those years.
The springtime of youth is largely recreational. The fall of retirement is when one spends their children’s inheritance, again recreationally. Old age is when one is put out to pasture. How incredibly tragic. Two very wrong presuppositions in this model are:
- Our primary contribution to society is the money we earn
- This contribution is only made during one of our four seasons of life
This thinking absolves us from responsibility before God and others during our youth and our retirement years, and steals our hope and joy in our later years.
How things have changed culturally! For thousands of years, societies had respect and veneration for older generations. Our founding fathers wore white wigs to give the appearance of the wisdom that comes with age. Today people dye their gray hair to give the appearance of youth.
Proverbs 20:29 says “The glory of young men is their strength, the beauty of old men is their gray hair.”
Bearing Fruit
In John 15:1-8, Jesus tells the parable of the vine and the branches. Jesus spoke much about the cycles of bearing fruit and pruning to bear more fruit. From His perspective, this life is always about that life—preparing us for eternity through spiritual growth.
From the time we are saved until He calls us home, God carries us through many seasons of fall pruning, winters when our roots go deep, springs of vigorous spiritual growth, and summers of bearing fruit. At any age there are myriads of opportunities to bear fruit: teaching Sunday school, singing in choirs, mentoring those younger, going on mission trips, and interceding in prayer.
We may have more physical strength in our young years, more disposable income in our working years, and more time in our retirement years. But regardless our stage of life, we can, and the Lord expects us to, bear much fruit!
Transitioning Seasons
Romans 12:1 tells us to view our lives as “living sacrifices, holy, acceptable to the Lord, which is our reasonable service.” From salvation until Heaven, we should be living to please and serve Him.
Verse 2 tells us to “not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” In other words, don’t let the world force you into its mold!
As we transition from one stage or season of life, may we be filled with expectancy and excitement that the Lord indeed is doing a new thing that we should surely know, making a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert (Isaiah 43:19). Whether it’s graduation or a job transfer, empty nesting or retirement, wherever He is leading us He has already prepared the way.
As surely as He is the vine and we are the branch, God has a plan for us to prosper and not harm us that we will have a future and a hope. Rest assured that His plan includes bearing fruit to His glory and to the good of others.
Some of the greatest contributions to the kingdom, have come from people late in their lives who refused to quit living and saw each season as a grand opportunity to grow and change. They allowed the Lord to lead them in new and exciting adventures. As Christian’s, the best is always ahead of us!