Autumn is hands down the most beautiful season out of the four. At least it is for those who live in the north. :) Watching the leaves turn from green into the most bright and vivid colors imaginable is nothing short of spectacular! I've been pondering something regarding fall for a few weeks now and so I thought I'd share it with you. It really spoke to my heart and I hope it speaks to yours as well.
It started with a conversation I had with my Grandma Edie. We were talking about the weather and how autumn was just arriving. As I told her that the leaves up here in NNY were just starting to turn colors and how beautiful it was, she told me that, unfortunately, that wasn't the case for her this year out in Colorado. With not enough rainfall this summer, they had suffered a drought. She told me how the leaves on the Heavenly Maple tree in her yard didn't turn any colors! Instead, her beloved trees leaves just fell to the ground when the weather got cooler and shriveled up on the grass colorless. She explained to me how disappointing it was to not get to watch one of her favorite trees display it's brilliant colors this fall. The only thing it left her with was a bunch of ugly dead leaves on the ground to be raked up! When she told me this I understood her disappointment. How sad to not be able to enjoy something so lovely as a maple tree at the peak of its glory.
After that conversation with my grandma it got me to thinking. It dawned on me just how much we as individuals are like that tree. If we don't get enough water we too will have leaves that, instead of displaying all their splendor and beauty when the season changes, will fall to the ground unchanged to dry out. Do you see a parallel too? I really felt the Holy Spirit showed me this truth, so simple, and yet it has been so profound to me. If we as Christians don't receive enough of God -- the watering of being in His Word, the refreshment of being in His presence and a daily awareness of our need for the cleansing power of Jesus' blood -- then we too might miss out on the beauty God has in store for us. It is so important, crucial really, that we get enough water!
I also thought of how sad and disappointing it must be for God to miss out on watching His "trees" display their beauty the way God intended them to, just as it was sad and disappointing for my grandma to watch her maple tree. Surely we grieve God when we don't live our life to the fullness and richness that only He can offer. But as God always does, He doesn't let it end there. Nope. He doesn't let us feel awful about screwing up or making some bad choices. Nope, not our God. Instead, He gives us another chance. He brings us into a new season and reminds us that there will be another autumn. That there is hope. And there is always a better future. It's like when my grandma told me that the tree itself was not dead, so there's always the hope that next year will be different, that it will be the way it's intended to be -- a beautiful tree in the fullness of its glory, just the way God created it to be. And so it is with us.
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