I have always loved Frank Sinatra’s music. My daughter asked me once, “How many Sinatra albums do you have”?  I replied, “How many did he make”?  I was not a screaming “Bobby-soxer”, but I always enjoyed his voice and his ballads.  One of my favorites has been “September of My Years”.  It is a slow, almost mournful, tune telling of a life defined by the seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter.

“It’s a long, long while from May to December, but the days grow short when you reach September”

Frank Sinatra – September Song

 I love fall, yet it always saddens me, for I know it means Winter, with cold and snow, is coming. There is a beauty in every season and the colored leaves and mild days of fall are no less beautiful. Fall brings us the harvest and the bounty of our labor. During the winter everything dies and then is reborn in the spring.  There is beauty in that also.  

As we think about our lives, we realize how much we enjoyed our seasons and how quickly they passed.  As I watch my daughter and son-in-law, and grandchildren interacting with our great-grandchildren and my son and daughter-in-law welcoming their new daughter-in-law, there is joy in each of their seasons also.  In January we are expecting our first great granddaughter. I anxiously await a new being bringing happiness with her arrival.  I love Fall, Fall has its joys.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

Lord, we thank you for all the times you have given us, for all the seasons of our lives. May we be worthy. Be with those who are grieving loss in their lives, may they be comforted, those who are ill, may they find healing,  those who are seeking you, may they feel you near, those who are in need and hunger, may they be filled.  Be with our church that we may be the hands and feet of Christ. Be with our Pastor, our Staff, our Leaders may they feel you leading and loving them.  In Jesus name we pray, Amen

Grace Epperson