Having been raised in NW Pennsylvania, I love seasons. I love the budding of crocus in the spring. Seeing the bright green shoots coming up through the last of the snow, a promise of warmer weather with the crusty black layer on the white snow. Crunching through dead leaves in the fall was a joy I looked forward to. Slipping and sliding down the hills of our town, while trying to navigate walking in the winter. And, summer, that glorious season that was filled with activities and cook-outs. I will always cherish the memories of growing up in Oil City, PA.

We lived in San Diego for almost 28 years. Being in Southern California the seasons passed, almost without a thought. Only rarely did we see real weather there. Instead of the noticeable change of seasons, there was a nuance of change there. I learned to look for that nuance, to feel it as it came. It usually was a fleeting feeling, a breeze that smelled just a bit different, or a lone leaf waiting to be crunched under foot.

Today as I walked, I experienced a nuance. The weather is still the gates of hell hot, but a small breeze hit me and it smelled like fall. Granted here in the south, we still have August and part of September to go through before there is any real sign of fall, but today I received a promise. Cooler weather is coming.

I looked at the bunting on my front porch, knowing in the next week or so I will take it down, wash it and put it away for another year. The red, white, and blue wreaths and door hangings will be put away. My patriotic flags will be replaced by fall flags. Then, with a blink of an eye, I will be decorating for Christmas.

The years pass quickly. Each year seems to shorten in length to me. I once heard a pastor say, “Our life is but a burp in eternity” I laughed at that statement. I was in my late twenties at the time and felt like I had time to do so much. Lately, I have thought of that statement. A burp is small. We don’t even think of the time it takes to burp. Such is life.

If I am recognizing that seasons pass quickly, years are flying by and my life is a burp in eternity, the question hovers in me, what am I doing in the span of a burp?

“in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” I Corinthians 15:52 (NKJV)