My sister in law says it something like this, "your struggles follow you into every season of life"; and isn't it true that we find ourselves in familiar struggles in a vast array of situations and circumstances?
-But God-
God's faithfulness is new every morning! And while we have our patterns and struggles, he rules and reigns over even these. I saw it today in Genesis and it caused me to both mourn and rejoice. In Genesis 3 we watch the scene play out after the first disobedience ever starts the first fibonacci in its unfold.
The knowledge of good and evil was stolen- and suddenly we became self focused. The moment which struck me the loudest today was Adam and Eve's first response. When they saw that they were naked (which they had always been without sinning) they sewed a covering for themselves. And that very pattern has repeated and reverberated every day in every life since then. There are entire churches built as fig-leaf-sewing facilities. Works to make you look good; works to make you feel good; lists of dos-and-don'ts to make sure your heart never shows; worship services to stir up feelings of closeness that convince us we do love God... How much of my own life of service is actually sewing fig leafs, making sure others don't see the depths of my own brokenness? 
If you look closely at the Fibonacci Pattern, it's almost as if there are 4 starting points of growth. We've seen 2 in the story so far: sin and self-righteousness. Next is the curse; even with all that work of covering themselves, when God came to walk with them they knew they still needed to hide, "I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." says Adam. Yes. So much of my own life is spent in this place. I may be able to convince myself that I'm a "good person" when I stand in front of other fig leaf covered bodies, but in front of God? Who can stand? So God hands out consequences; weight that we carry around to today causing all of creation to groan "as in the pains of childbirth".
But even in the curse there is a glimmer of the fourth spiral start - the promise of One who would crush the serpent's head, and the coverings of skin that God himself made to cover the nakedness of the first sinful, self-righteous curse bearers in a long line. Coverings that didn't make them jump for hiding when even God himself drew near. Children's Bibles worth their salt will point out that an animal had to die for Adam and Eve to receive these coverings. They were made of skin. Adam's "friend" and the animal he was supposed to serve God by ministering to had to die so that Adam could stand. And this is Christ. The only way I can draw near. The only covering that can make me okay. The one who can make even my sin serve Him by using it to draw me to Him, exalting himself over all of it. This is the gospel! This is the story of truth that echos in every corner of the universe, in every flower, in every life story... all of creation shouts it... and I get to live it out today and always. I wish I could say I know how to live in the truth of that last quarter more fully, but the truth is I cycle through them like the seasons, like a flower unfolding, or pine cone opening. Lord have mercy! May the cycle always come full circle until I am made whole in His presence!
