As The Swift Seasons Roll

 

Scripture Reading: Psalm 1: 1 – 6; John 3: 1 – 18

Psalm 1: 3. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prosper. (1)

It is common for many people to ask what is it with the poets and their representation of human life.  Many lines of poetry on the subject just do not jive with the experiences we know.

“He is like a tree planted by streams of water, whose leaf does not wither.”

The number of people for whom that is true seems so minuscule it is barely observable. While stooping to tie my shoes each morning, I survey the surrounding scene to determine what additional task might need doing while I am in that position. Something is withering, and it hurts! And then listen to the poet Robert Browning:

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was
made: (2)

We refuse to finish the couplet; it is so out of touch with most experiences. We are so in tune with our aching muscles and our dimming eyesight that Robert Browning is easy to dismiss.

It is apparent that the one thing that most characterizes this generation is our obsession with the aging process. For the past decade, analysts have been calculating the financial strain the ‘Baby Boomers” will place upon the system.  Innovative attempts are being made to conceal the obvious giveaway signs that many of us now belong to that “Baby Boomer” generation.  Still, many people keep valiantly trying to hide the stubborn facts, convincing themselves they see visible of signs of improvement. Yet the swift season’s roll never delays for the briefest second.
We can change definitions and camouflage the facts at will, but essential facts remain: muscles grow flaccid and limp, steps become leaden and slow. The ‘slumber room’ is still the funeral parlor. The seasons roll – at an even swifter pace, it seems! The poet, the prose writer, and the artist may take all the poetic license and liberty they desire to create their intended effect; yet the physical reality never matches our desire.

In the light of all this, there is one essential question that must engage us all. What responsibility remains for each of us to effect each season that comes and then so quickly passes?  It is true: there is nothing that we can do about the passage of time.  We can personally take responsibility to distinguish one season from the next rather than let life pass in an impossible maze.

I heard of one invited to give his view on aging. “It’s all downhill from here,” he responded.  “It’s just like coasting down a steep hill to the end. Nothing you can do will affect the outcome.” The Questioner responded:  “Yes, it is rather like sliding down a steep hill, but surely you are going to accept the responsibility to steer the sled, aren’t you?”

It may be time now to look again at our critique of the poetic expressions concerning life discussed earlier.

The poet in Psalm One makes it abundantly clear that it is “the man who delights in the law of the Lord, who is like a tree planted by streams of water.” The writer underlines the fact that time still passes even for that individual, but the passing seasons yield their fruit. Each season brings the responsibility of keeping in good repair his relationship with God.

Similarly, Robert Browning goes further than extending an invitation to “Grow old along with me”.  His suggestion is that the experience of aging can be an enlightening experience for all, simply because “our times are in His hand Who saith,’A whole I planned.'”. (2)

Every season that rolls by has within it opportunities to experience other adventures with God. Vigilance will prepare us to enjoy invigorating seasons with God. Then by the end of life’s journey, we will know what it is, to be like a tree drawing from streams of living water.

Let one more poet be permitted to have the last word on this theme. Here is Oliver Wendell Holmes writing in his “Chambered Nautilus.”

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul
as the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
till thou at length are free,
leaving thine outgrown shell
by life’s unresting sea. (3)

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1. Holy Bible. Here and throughout quotations from The Bible
Are from the NIV. New International Translation

2. Robert Browning. From ” Rabbi Ben Ezra”

3. Oliver Wendell Holmes. “The Chambered Nautilus”