The cold wet nights of recent weeks remind me of words from Ecclesiastes, “… for everything there is a season …”

Eventually this chilly winter weather will give way to the warmth of spring with blooms of bursting colour only to be replaced by the heat of summer, which in turn will be followed by the falling leaves of autumn before winter returns again.

Our lives too have seasons… in May I attended the funeral of my mother-in-law, in June a beautiful new granddaughter arrived to gladden our hearts…

“… for everything there is a season …”

and so the Psalmist urges us to be wise and number our days, knowing that this life doesn’t go on forever.

For ANGLICARE, with the retirement of our CEO, there will come a seasonal change as our new CEO arrives to lead us into the next period of change and development in ANGLICARE’s growth.

What of our personal seasons? I love the promise contained in Isaiah 46: “I have upheld you since you were conceived and have carried you since your birth. I am he who will sustain you even to your old age and grey hairs (or none). I have made you and will carry you.”

What a wonderful reminder of God’s abiding love through every season of our lives. When we couple it with the assurance in Psalm 92, that the righteous will still flourish and bear fruit in old age like the palm trees and cedars of Lebanon, we know that even retirement is not the end of productive life but the end of the beginning.

So as we go through the various seasons of our lives individually or at ANGLICARE, let us remember that he who created us has promised to sustain us, to guard and to keep us. In each stage of our individual lives may we also be wise enough to number our days and give them all to him, something we can do only through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Ken Allen
ANGLICARE Pastoral Care Manager