When we planted our raised garden beds this past spring, I decided to edge one with a row of sunflowers.

Within weeks, small tender shoots unfurled and began reaching upward. All summer long they grew, gradually producing large blossoms that tracked the sun’s east-to-west journey across the sky. By summer’s end, gigantic golden flowers crowned the thick, sturdy stalks that stood taller than I.

As fall approached, the weighty flower heads were no longer able to face the sun, for the abundance of seeds they had produced caused them to bend downward. I was amazed at the tenacity of their root system, which held fast, bearing the heavy load against even the fiercest wind storm.

For some reason, it took our woodland friends a long time to discover the abundant treasure within the fuzzy brown centers. Not surprisingly, it was the chickadees who first visited the towering yellow flowers, flitting back and forth to wrestle the black and white seeds from their hiding place.

The bird’s busy activity alerted the squirrels, who have also become frequent visitors. Frisky and fast, they scurry up the stalks to stuff their cheeks and then run back to their nests with their tails bouncing behind them. They have resourcefully resorted to chewing their way through the tough outer portion of the flower, strewing bits and pieces across the garden soil as they work.

Just the other day, a turkey flock strutted through the yard, bunching together as they warily explored the area. Somehow, they missed the free buffet and moved off into the surrounding woods.

This is a beautiful time of the year and one of my favorite seasons. Autumn is a not only a time of harvest, but it is a time of rest — a time when plants go into dormancy and the soil is left to rejuvenate until spring.

When God created the earth, He set the times and seasons in motion by His words, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years,” Genesis 1:14.

He has promised that the seasons will continue, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease,” Genesis 8:22.

Those God-designed seasons help mark the passing of a calendar year. Even so, our life is marked by seasons. Webster’s Dictionary defines a season as the time period when something takes place. In life, we experience not only the physical seasons of spring, summer, fall, and winter, but also ever-changing personal seasons, bringing challenges and questions, joy and fulfillment, loss and regret, discovery and fruitfulness, and the list goes on.

Sometimes, I don’t like the changes taking place in the current season. Other times, I don’t feel ready for the next season. And, sometimes I want to linger, not moving out of a season of comfort and ease.

King Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes, who was known as a man of great wisdom, assures us that, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven,” Ecclesiastes 3:1.

For me, the new calendar season provides a reminder to take time for self-reflection and to refocus on the things that are important, to take comfort in the lessons learned and to recognize the personal growth that has been produced.

I’m getting better at embracing the new seasons as they come. When I feel the winds of change blowing, I’m learning to trust God, even if it looks stormy.

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash,” Matthew 7:24-27.

I’ve come to the place where I want my roots to reach down deeply into Him and to gracefully allow Him to make the most out of each season I encounter. For He promises that, as I love Him and seek His purposes, He is able to work all things together for good in my life (Romans 8:28).

I don’t always navigate each new season without stumbling, but He is constant and fixed and has continually proven to be a rock solid foundation on which to build my life — no matter the season I’m in.

Michelle Smith serves alongside her husband, Gary, as part of the leadership team of New Life Christian Fellowship. She founded Purely Women Ministries with the purpose of helping women of all ages discover their true identity as women of God. She can be reached at michelle@newlifealpena.org.