Seasons Change … God’s Love Is Eternal

One of the side benefits to being part of the Benedictine College faculty is the gift of driving to and from our home in Kansas City, North and Atchison.

I realize I may be the rare bird who doesn’t mind putting about 500 miles a week on a vehicle, but the trip to campus gives me  the opportunity to hone in on what I want to share in my classes for the day. As important, I have the gift of observing God’s gifts of the seasons in Northwest Missouri and Northeast Kansas.

If you’ve traveled the roadway north of Weston, Mo., and gone past the power plant in Iatan, you know that on the east side of the road are a series of bluffs, laden with hundreds of trees which have to been in place for, certainly, hundreds of years if not thousands. The bluffs where the trees sit are the remnants of the glacial retreat that carved out the Missouri River. It is an inspiring sight each day.

On a trip to Sunday Mass at the Abbey last weekend, my wife, Cheri, reminded me that we needed to come up as the leaves change in autumn, and I agreed, absolutely. It is God’s handiwork on display.

And, of course, being the former radio personality in the house, and on campus, it brought to mind a song from the group Exposé. “Seasons Change” was their hit from 1987 and a section of the lyrics spoke to me when I listened to the song again on YouTube:

Seasons change feelings change
It’s been so long since I found you
Yet it seems like yesterday
Seasons change people change
I’ll sacrifice tomorrow
Just to have you here today.

In context to the passage of time, we pray that those dearest to us remain in that special relationship with us. We who are married took our vows seriously when we told each other, before the presider, our families, our Church, we would remain with each other as long as we are alive.

God’s love for us, even more importantly, is unending. It remains constant through each season, birth, death, joy, sadness, light, darkness.

Despite the disbelief around us, God smiles and loves on us every day of our lives. So rejoice! We are children of God!
Hosea 2:23

And, realizing that the bluffs, and the trees, and nature abounding on a long-ago formed rocky exterior will be in place, and a myriad of seasons will change,  long after our earthly lives end:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Image: The Abbey Lookout at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.