Autumn in Colorado Photo Citation: http://rmowp.org/rmowp/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Colorado-Autumn-43.jpg
As we round the next corner into the fall season, I am reflecting on the theme of change in my life and others. I’ve always liked the fall; it means it’s time for football season, changing leaves, cider, pumpkin beer and all of that good stuff. Fall reminds us that seasons do not last forever. Warmth gives way to cool, crisp weather and then cold winters.
Life is quite similar. We go through our seasons of growth, joy, sadness, pain, and excitement and sometimes even blandness. Right now I’m reminded that change can be sad, hard, but also good. Lauren and I have grown very close with friends over the years here in Denver. In fact, because our immediate families do not live in Colorado; our friends are the closest thing to family that we have here. I am blessed to have my aunt and cousins nearby though.
But many of our close friends have migrated out of our lives in this latest season. Some have gone west to the Pacific, some south to Texas, and still others have migrated east. As we watch them go, each new exodus seems harder than the last. Will we stay here? Will we leave as well? How long will we be in Denver? Why is it so transient? How do we know the relationships we invest in will last? These are questions that surface for me in this season.
I won’t pretend to have some revelation or epiphanic insight that solves these puzzling questions. One thing I do know though is life has its seasons for reasons. I’ve learned this through my own experiences and through journeying through life’s quandaries with God never leaving my side. When things seem confusing like what the future holds or why a friend moves away. He is constant. He is steady. God is near, and he is enough. Verses like Psalm 62:8 remind me of this.
So as we enter this autumnal season full of change, I am putting hope in what the future holds and what God has planned in our lives. This hope will hold anticipation albeit with a tinge of melancholy. Maybe melancholy tastes like pumpkin beer…
theskinzscoop 
I love the way you process your thoughts, Nate Skinner! Especially the constructive way you use them to bless others. For example, your post called to my mind two blessed thoughts:
Isaiah prophesied our Savior would be “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”. And
C.S. Lewis who said “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”