The Cycle

September 7, 2019

Darkness descends earlier these days and lingers longer in the mornings. The warmth of this afternoon’s sun is giving way to a night cooler than we knew just a couple short weeks ago. Here and there, the lawn sports a mottled brown, courtesy of the few dry leaves that released their hold on the maples, cherry, and ash along our creek, harbingers of days to come, with  muscles aching from the pull of the rake. Hours spent sweating in the sun through summer’s labors will soon yield to stoking the stove and sitting through the evening in its warm glow. It’s part of a pattern that has existed for thousands of years, giving continuity and order to life itself.

The Biblical story of Noah concludes with the promise, 

“While the earth remains, 

Seedtime and harvest, 

Cold and what, 

Winter and summer, 

And day and night 

Shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22)

Summer morphs into Autumn, Autumn to Winter, Winter to Spring, Spring back to Summer...a seemingly endless cycle of the seasons observed in various ways throughout the world. Some see in this cycle hints of an endless reincarnation of the soul, but the text is clear: “While the earth remains...” The Jewish and Christian Scriptures are adamant that time is linear, not cyclical—a view that stands in stark contrast to the polytheistic (and atheistic) religions. The Day is coming, these Scriptures assert, when this earth will pass and God will create a new heaven and earth (see Isaiah 65:17, 2 Peter 3:13, and Revelation 21:1).

As the days shorten, I will dig out the sweaters from their storage bins, check the coats in the closet, retrieve my winter fedoras from their boxes in the attic, make sure the woodbin is filled. My Ural needs to be prepped for winter storage so when the renegade warm day pops up in January, I’ll be ready to ride. I’ve already cleaned the chimney and vacuumed last year’s ashes from the stove. The cycle of the seasons rolls on, but not endlessly. There is a future, a goal towards which we move. It’s called the Kingdom of God, and one day, as Jesus taught his followers to pray, it will come “on earth, as it is in heaven.” For that future I await and give thanks tonight.