4계절
[sakyejeol]
四季節
Etymology
四 사 [sa] – four季 계 [kye] – season
節 절 [jeol] – a knot, a section
Nature has its goals and directions for development. Development occurs cyclically and is aimed at certain results. New objects are formed through these cycles. The Universe develops cyclically. All living things begin to live and reproduce in the spring, bloom in the summer, bear fruit in the fall, and gain strength in the winter. The four seasons come one after the other, succeeding each other.
The cycle of spring, summer, autumn, and winter is repeated not only year after year, but also day after day: morning corresponds to spring, day to summer, evening to autumn, night to winter. Following the same pattern, human life goes through four phases: childhood, youth, maturity and old age. Human history also develops similar to the changing seasons.
Like the four seasons, your life also has a spring period when God’s grace descends upon you; a summer period when it multiplies; a fall harvest period; and a winter trial period. So, we need to accept trials with gratitude. They come from the love of the Heavenly Parent to separate us from evil. Trials are like winter, so if we endure and overcome them, God’s grace, like spring, will come upon us again. People should love both spring and summer, and fall and winter.
When spring comes, you must sow, summer is a time of rapid growth, fall is a time of fruit, winter is a time to put everything in order and keep the source of new life in your soul. It will become the seed that can be sown with the coming of a new spring. This means that in the future we will need to become parents and give life to sons and daughters who look like us. We will have to nurture them as our parents nurtured us.
The leaves fall off the trees in the fall, new shoots emerge in the spring, and the garden stands green in the summer. In the same way, we humans emerge by passing through a countless succession of our ancestors, with whom we are bound by ties of blood and who live in us. We are their descendants, and we live as their representatives. We live in order, following the true love and vitality of our ancestors, to continue their bloodline.