Seeing kids head back to school can bring back a lot of memories. The backpacks, the school buses, the first-day-of-school pictures on social media... all of that takes me back.
One memory that came back for me was the summer after fourth grade, when my parents sat me down and told me we were moving. I was devastated. Moving meant leaving my home, my school, my friends, and everything that felt familiar. I remember wondering why I didn’t get a say in any of it.
When my dad pulled up in the moving truck, I knew life was changing whether I was ready for it or not. The rest of that summer went by fast, and before I knew it, I was walking into fifth grade at a school where I didn’t know the building, the teachers, or any of the kids. Those first few days felt awkward and lonely.
Then one day, another boy sat down with me at lunch. We started talking, and he became my first friend at that new school. At the time, I was just grateful to have somebody to sit with, but I had no idea how important that friendship would become. Years later, that same friend would invite me to church as a teenager, and that is where I would eventually surrender my life to Christ.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 says, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven... a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
I didn’t understand that season when I was a kid. I only knew what I was losing. I couldn’t see what God was putting in place. But looking back, I can see His hand in something that felt painful, unwanted, and completely out of my control.
Maybe you are walking through a change you didn’t choose right now. Maybe a door closed, a season ended, or life shifted in a way you weren’t ready for. I don’t know why God allows every change the way He does, but I do know He is still at work in the middle of seasons we don’t understand yet.