By Zhao Ting
The First Day of Autumn finally comes in the hope, so that everyone feels refreshed a lot.
The First Day of Autumn is one of the twenty-four solar terms, marking that the autumn commences. We can all feel a very significant difference between the temperatures before and after the First Day of Autumn: The weather is very hot before that. Only staying in the air-conditioned room and eating iced watermelon can make us not so uncomfortable. In particular, the temperature in this summer was higher than in previous years, and the duration was much longer, so we awaited the autumn more eagerly to come earlier, because once the First day of Autumn passed, the temperature will be different. A breeze blows with a trace of coolness, refreshing and comfortable.
Feeling the alternation between summer and autumn, I couldn’t help but think of the alternations in all seasons. When people are still signing the coldness of winter, with breathing to warm their hands and stamping their feet, spring comes to our side quietly and brings the warm weather and blooming of flowers, with a scene full of vitality everywhere. When people have not appreciated enough the beauty of spring yet, summer is coming with passion, which is a good season for everything growing furiously. Several months pass, Autumn comes slowly in people’s expectation. This is the harvest season, and everyone beams with happiness. As time passes bit by bit, the four seasons rotate in perpetual cycles like this.… However, who knows who rules the law of the four seasons’ alternations?
With the curiosity about nature, I have asked many people how the seasons came into being and how they change, but the answers were different. Some people said, “Four seasons have existed since ancient times, and their transformation has also existed since then.” Some people analyzed that the four seasons are the result of change of the distance between the earth’s surface and the sun along with the rotation and revolution of the earth. Someone else said, “It is the ecliptic’s obliquity that makes the subsolar point moving continuously, which causes the changes of the four seasons.” But more people said seasons is controlled by the Old Man in the Sky, where only as He says it is cold, hot, cloudy, or thunders or rains, and it is or does so.… When I heard these different opinions, they got me all tangled up: Which one is actually the accurate answer? Later, I became a Christian and knew the exact answer from God’s words.
“‘And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light on the earth’ (Gen 1:14-15). … The lights in the heaven are matter in the sky that can radiate light; they can illuminate the sky, and can illuminate the land and seas. They revolve according to the rhythm and frequency commanded by God, and light up different time periods upon land, and in this way revolution cycles of the lights cause day and night to be produced in the east and west of the land, and they are not only signs for night and day, but through these different cycles they also mark the feasts and various special days of mankind. They are the perfect complement and accompaniment to the four seasons—spring, summer, autumn, and winter—issued forth by God, together with which the lights harmoniously serve as regular and accurate marks for the lunar terms, days, and years of mankind. … From this point onward, mankind and all things unconsciously lived amongst the orderly interchange of night and day and alternations of the seasons produced by the revolutions of the lights” (“God Himself, the Unique I”).
“Ever since God created them, based on the laws that He determined, all things have been operating and have been continuing to develop regularly. Under His gaze, under His rule, all things have been developing regularly alongside the survival of humans. Not a single thing is able to change these laws, and not a single thing can destroy these laws. It is because of God’s rule that all beings can multiply, and because of His rule and management that all beings can survive. This is to say that under God’s rule, all beings come into existence, thrive, disappear, and reincarnate in an orderly fashion. When spring arrives, drizzling rain brings that feeling of spring and moistens the earth. The ground begins to thaw, grass germinates and pushes its way up through the soil and the trees gradually turn green. All these living things bring fresh vitality to the earth. This is the sight of all beings coming into existence and thriving. All sorts of animals also come out of their burrows to feel the warmth of spring and start a new year. All beings bask in the heat during the summer and enjoy the warmth brought by the season. They grow rapidly; trees, grass, and all types of plants are growing very quickly, then they bloom and bear fruit. All beings are very busy during the summer, including humans. In the fall, rains bring autumn’s coolness, and all types of living beings start to experience the harvest season. All beings bear fruit, and humans also begin to harvest all kinds of things because of the fall production of these beings, in order to prepare food for the winter. In the winter all beings gradually begin to rest in the coldness, to become quiet, and people also take a break during this season. These transitions from spring to summer to fall and to winter—these changes all occur according to the laws established by God. He leads all beings and humans using these laws and has established for mankind a rich and colorful way of life, preparing an environment for survival that has different temperatures and different seasons. Under these orderly environments for survival, humans can also survive and multiply in an orderly way. Humans cannot change these laws and not a single person or being can break them. No matter what radical changes occur in the world, these laws continue to exist and they exist because God does. It is because of God’s rule and His management” (“God Himself, the Unique IX”).
From God’s Words, I feel God’s great love and concern for mankind: Before God created man, on the fourth day of God’s creation of all things, God has created the annual seasons—spring, summer, autumn and winter, and made them alternate regularly, for the sake that humans would have a comfortable living environment. At the same time, God created the lights in the heaven to shine upon the earth, so that we can distinguish between day and night, and take the seasons, days and years as rules and marks of life, to ensure that we can live regularly and not fall into darkness and confusion. In this way, we humans live such carefree lives within the laws which were laid down by God, experiencing the different feelings that the four seasons bring to us. Many years have passed, and we have been following these rules to live from generation to generation, year after year.
From the four seasons of rotation, we can see that although mankind can grasp some data about how the sun and earth revolve and the change of distance between them, thereby exploring some principles of the four seasons’ alternations, if it were not God’s words to uncover the mysteries, man would never know that it is God that established and commands these laws. Therefore, when we read the words of God, and subsequently use our hearts to feel and observe the laws of all things, we can appreciate God’s unique authority and ability. Such rules can not be determined or changed by any created or non-created beings, because only God is the origin of all life, and only God can dominate the operation of all things. God supplies all things with His life being and manages everything with His almightiness and wisdom. The purpose and significance of everything that God does are that mankind can live, thrive and reproduce normally under His care and protection.
Thank God’s words to reveal all these mysteries, to let us know God’s care and concern for mankind, which are hidden behind the four seasons. This love cannot be expressed or described, but man can only appreciate and comprehend it in all things created by God, and can ponder and learn it in the words of truth expressed by God. God’s love is the truest and most selfless, bestowed upon everyone who sincerely seeks truth. Would you like to know and accept it?
Source: WALK IN THE LIGHT
