Goodbye, September

Goodbye, September

Sometimes there are months on the calendar that you’d rather not see make their appearance. Not because of things to come, but because of things, or rather people, that have gone before. The month of September has taken so much from many of us, and it seems that it just keeps on taking. Every year I dread the thought of who will come next. This year a very close friend lost her son and it felt like my heart was being torn in two by her pain. Another friend lost her grandmother.  It hurts to see your friends hurting!

As I sat thinking of all of the friends and loved ones that have been lost to the month of September over the years, I started to wonder where the word September came from and if it was a Hebrew word or what its origin was. Elul is the word used for this time of year in Hebrew, which means “harvest.” As I thought about this I thought of the Lord reaping a harvest. The harvest is talked about throughout the Bible. We usually assume that the Lord is speaking of the end of days, but like most things we can only interpret what the Lord is telling us and we aren’t meant to know everything about what God does. Seeing how many souls have left the earth in September makes me wonder, does the Lord have His own harvest season this time of year? Is He also picking the choice crop for Heaven?

Losing those we love is life-altering and heart-wrenching. Even if we know that they will be living joyfully with the Lord, it is still hard for us to have them taken from us. We love them so much that it is difficult for us to be separated from them. People will always say, “They are in a better place.” Those words are meant to comfort, but sometimes when we are filled with sorrow it is hard to even imagine that. It is hard for us to imagine a life without them in it or how long we will be forced to be separated from them. 

The Lord doesn’t take our loved ones away to hurt us. Death, unfortunately, is a part of life here on earth. Because of the sins in the garden, death had to become a part of life. Living in and enduring a sinful world, in my opinion, will make an eternity with Christ that much more sweet. We can take heart, our own Elul is coming, and the homecoming will be amazing!

“Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.”

John 4:36