Navigating the seasons

A beautiful, promising season.

I have recently become a grandmother! Like many before me I can say that holding this new baby, child of my child, is one of the most intensely emotional moments of my life. My whole being wants to touch, to hold, to help, to teach, to do what comes naturally through years of motherhood… and my mind tells me to tread gently, sensitively, cautiously seeking the next foothold in this uncharted terrain.

I am navigating a new season. A beautiful, promising season. Like a tiny flower budding, it is not only wonderful, it is also tender, so very fragile… The reason for this is that this little baby is not my own. She is my children's child. One wrong and hasty action or word can offend and wound.

Navigation through seasons can be perilous because we are surrounded by others who are also navigating through their own seasons. Our children are trying to find their way as first time parents while we are finding our feet as grandparents. Both are vulnerable within the newness of emotion and experience.

Like everything in creation, seasons have boundaries. There is a beginning and there is an end. There is order and rhythm within those boundaries. Remove the boundaries or disregard them and the result is never glorious. I need to discover the Godly boundaries of my new season and in my painstaking progress I hear my Lord's voice, "Be gentle, dear one. Be kind, give space to move and grow. Be wise. The reward of careful navigation is the certainty of the desired destination."