Emarld Season
There’s a season in Zambia that feels like magic. After months of dust, dryness, brittle brown landscapes, and a scarred countryside from brush clearance fires, the rains come. They don’t just trickle in, either. They pour down with power. And almost overnight, what was barren bursts into life. Hills, valleys, villages, and fields shimmer with the deepest greens you can imagine. Everything is suddenly lush, vibrant and alive. We call it the Emerald Season.
In Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises, a character named Mike Campbell is asked how he went bankrupt, and his answer is, “Two ways…gradually, then suddenly.” This play on words is genius writing, and wonderfully simple, but the underlying powerful truth applies to changes in seasons as well as growth in our own lives.
Before the rains come to Zambia, there are unseen or unnoticed changes taking place in the atmosphere such as shifts in the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, a belt of low pressure that moves southward, bringing with it moist, rain-bearing winds. Even before the first drop of rain falls, the air becomes ever-so-slightly heavier with increased humidity and atmospheric moisture. And finally, just before the rains show up, cumulonimbus clouds begin to appear on the horizon.
In our lives, we may be walking through a dusty season wherein dreams have felt impossible, your drive is waning, you feel parched and weary on the inside, and your prayers dry. But let me encourage you today. Rise up, dust yourself off, make some changes for the better, press into health, growth, and God. Your desired change might not happen today. But the beauty of the Emerald Season is that it reminds us that when the rain does eventually come, life returns, and renewal comes with it. The landscape change after only a few rains each season in Zambia never ceased to amaze me. The green just exploded. Suddenly!
Here is a promise to hold onto:
“I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”— Isaiah 44:3
Even if your heart feels weary, don’t give up. The season will shift. Start doing what you know you should be doing and letting go of things you know you should release. Partner with God…give him something to work with. Keep showing up. Don’t quit yet. Your emerald season is coming…gradually then suddenly. And just like the lion quenching its thirst in the photo below, you’ll be refreshed and renewed!