God of all the seasons,
We find ourselves in the middle of something.  We know what season is passing and dread what season awaits us…for those cool breezes and soft nights, we thank You…even into early November.  We thank you for those extra, extra days.  We also savored those bold colors this fall that only You can produce…strong oranges, hard reds that slowly become soft, the black bare tree limbs against an orange sunset and a remnant of tough greens that will soon yield to those brilliant colors.

We all know what season is passing but we, again, fear what season is close by.  We suspect, again, freezing temperatures.  We like the idea of freezing but only if it remains in our minds and not felt within the core of our fragile, aging bodies.

We truly savor freezing those times when our families assembled and laughter was heard throughout the rooms; even arguments that we knew would happen between sibling rivalries that age never quenched.  We freeze the first born.  We freeze that first anxious job interview.  We freeze that military deployment to a country we only heard about.  We freeze the death of a spouse for 60 years when we were supposed to “go” first.  We freeze that refrigerator door that holds everything precious from her first drawing to his report card that finally showed passing grades.  We freeze those many trips whose memories we pray will never fade away from our minds.  We freeze things important and enduring but, Dear Lord we also dread the freeze of our bodies.

God of all seasons, prepare us to withstand weather’s freezes and never let us forget or ignore the memories that are frozen within our hearts and minds.  May the warmer latter far outweigh the colder former.  May the freezes of things important to us ease and warm the cold that we know You need to send us in this next season.

Be gentle with us this winter, Loving God.  We truly love the four seasons You provide us with but…deep in Your heart – could you make just one of them a little shorter and a lot more equal to the others?

Love,
Your humble Badger State servants.