Living in Indiana all my life, the change of seasons is such pleasure.  The new feel of the temperature, the smells and sights each time brings.  Spring with it’s blue skies, the purple, pink, white and green flowering trees, summer with it’s rows of green crops and shady meadows, autumn hues of orange, yellow and red, and winter with the white blanketing the ground.  I welcome each time of year.

Charles Swindoll writes in the introduction of his book "Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life":

“I'm glad God changes the times and the seasons, aren't you? Just think how dull things would become if He didn't paint nature's scenes in different colors several times a year.  With infinite creativity and remarkable regularity, He splashes white over brown and orange over green, giving such attention to detail that we are often stunned with amazement. Each of the four seasons offer fresh and vital insights for those who take the time to look and to think.  Hidden beneath the surface are colorful yet silent truths that touch most every area across the landscape of our lives.  As each three-month segment of every  year holds its own mysteries and  plays its own melodies, offering sights and smells, feelings and fantasies altogether distinct, so it is in the seasons of life.  The Master is neither mute nor careless as He alters our times and changes our seasons. How wrong to trudge blindly and routinely through a lifetime of changing seasons without discovering the answers to the new mysteries and learning to sing the new melodies.  Seasons are designed to deepen us, to instruct us in the wisdom and ways of our God.  To help us grow strong ... like a tree planted by the rivers of water (from Psalm 1).

... now, let's walk together as God escorts us through the seasons. Let's listen closely to His voice as we observe the changing scenery.  It might be wise for us to brace ourselves against those strong gusts of wind that inevitably accompany each season.  But even the storms bear a message of encouragement for us: Deeper roots make for stronger lives!”