For everything there is a season...

I have watched the changing beauty of the soybean field in front of my house from mid-summer until now. The colors were so vivid when the plants first changed from green to gold:

This picture was taken in early September and it's one of my favorites.

I guess I became somewhat obsessive over the field. I watched it everyday and I even noticed changes from day to day.

Later in September, the bean plants started to darken and the color lost some of it's vividness:



The field was still beautiful though and I continued to watch it...

Then, yesterday I heard the unmistakable sound of heavy farm equipment and I went outside to watch the combine do it's business:



It's silly, but it saddens me a little bit. I realize the soybeans weren't there for my enjoyment and they would have died eventually anyway but I would have liked to watch them change for a few more weeks.


Today the field is ugly and bare and there's dust all over everything around my home.

And soon the soil will be turned to prepare for the winter crop - or it might be allowed to lie fallow until spring.

"I have seen the business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man's mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live."

Maybe the soybeans were there for my enjoyment...