I was too young to understand seasonal changes before leaving the UK with my parents as a child. Growing up in Nigeria, I recognised only two weather seasons; rainy and dry seasons. Strictly speaking, these were not seasons, just that there were months when it rained more than others. We didn't need a change of wardrobe due to change in weather, all we needed was protection from the rain when it falls.

When I returned to England however, I began to experience actual seasons determined by the change in weather; Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. I suddenly realised that I needed to change my wardrobe for each season, with some seasons requiring layers of clothing just to step outside the door. It took me a while to get used to checking the forecast before deciding what to wear, something I never had to think about as a child.

Thinking about seasons reminded me of the scripture verse, "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease" (Genesis 8:22).

God had caused the earth to be flooded by water for a hundred and fifty days, drowning every living thing except the people and creatures in Noah's ark. When the waters receded, God told Noah to leave the ark. Noah subsequently made an altar to the Lord. The Lord was pleased with Noah's sacrifice and made that solemn promise, never to destroy the earth with a flood again.

This promise came straight after judgement, not before it. Noah had just watched everything he knew disappear under water. He had no guarantee that the new earth would behave any differently to the old one. Yet God chose that exact moment, with the ground still wet and the ark barely emptied, to speak a promise over the rhythm of the earth itself. Seedtime and harvest. Cold and heat. Summer and winter. Day and night. God was not simply describing the weather; He was binding Himself to a pattern of faithfulness that would outlast every generation that came after Noah.

We see this same heart of God echoed elsewhere in scripture. The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us that "to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Seasons are not accidents. They are appointed. And the God who appoints the seasons of the earth is the same God who appoints the seasons of our lives, the times of planting and the times of reaping, the times of warmth and the times we must simply endure the cold until it passes.

The prophet Jeremiah gives us another picture worth holding onto. He writes of God's mercies, saying "they are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22-23). Just as the sun rises without fail regardless of what happened the day before, God's faithfulness towards us does not run out or grow tired. It renews itself daily, the same way the seasons return in their appointed order year after year.

And in Malachi, God says plainly, "I am the Lord, I change not" (Malachi 3:6). The seasons around us change constantly, but the One who ordained them does not.

The promise God made to Noah shows us His faithfulness, that even after judging the earth, He bound Himself to a covenant of consistency that has held for thousands of years. It also shows that He reigns supreme, for the seasons do not turn by chance or by nature's own power, they turn because God ordained it so, and He alone has authority over the earth's rhythm.

For those of us who believe, this means we can trust Him. If God has kept His word to the earth itself across every generation, He can certainly be trusted to keep His word to us. It also means that no matter what happens in the season, heavy rainfall, earthquakes, tsunamis, or personal storms of our own, God is faithful and will keep His word.

Perhaps you are in a season right now that feels far colder than you expected, or a season of waiting where the harvest seems slow to come. Take heart. Seasons change because God said they would, and the same God who set that pattern in motion after the flood is watching over the season you are in today. Winter does not last forever. Spring always comes. Hold on to His faithfulness, and let it carry you through until the season turns.