I love being outdoors. Love seeing the changing of the year come once again. The leaves are falling. Sometimes one by one, but at others you can hear many rush off the branches at once. Last night while I was sleeping I awoke to an owl making known he was there outside my window. This morning like many the geese are flying over head. The birds are chirping their jovial tunes while just over in the other field the hawks are flying overhead making a racket of noise.
My husband and son have been cutting wood and gathering it up for this winter's cold. I love the smell in the air and just the breeze that bring a chill for a sweater. This is a season of hope. We see trees go bare and birds flying south. What was once a soft sound in the breeze now turns to a crunch with each step outdoors.
We bring in each season with a goodbye to the one leaving. We all seem to have our favorites. I am a cool weather girl. Give me mittens, a scarf and a great coat and I am all set to go. Pour the sun over me and make me sweat and I will be a crab all day.
Life is a broad spectrum of changing seasons. We have our favorites and others, well, some seasons in life we wish would just hurry on by. Like now, in our home things are bare. The leaves have fallen and we can hear a crunch. This is a season in our life that I wish could go south with the geese. I hate struggle, don't you? I hate the feeling of insecurity. Think those birds are feeling insecure that the weather is changing? I don't think so. They are in a hurry to gather all the food they need to store, just as the little red squirrels are doing in our back woods. They are preparing. They know change is coming and they are scurrying about to make room for the new season. Those little birds although in a scurry are singing loudly. It is as though they are singing, "Have faith, a new season is coming."
I should be singing. We have enjoyed many blessings over the summer months and into the fall. I cannot allow the rain to overshadow the rainbow that glimmers through the clouds. But that in fact is what I do. I focus on the rain, not realizing that with that rain comes new sprouts of life and new growth. I don't think God gave the seasons just for us to look at with wonder, but to really look at with a hope of tomorrow. Just as each season has come into my life I have thought I will never make it through. There is no coat warm enough to keep out the cold and no umbrella strong enough to keep the rain off my head. I tend to sit down and just stay there in the sorrow and fear of today. Do you?
Just as those leaves fall today new life will come once again. New hope. The geese will return and they will have babies to bring a new smile once again. We cannot stop today from happening. Sometimes we are prepared and others, well, they hit us like a cold wind from the north. But we can start each day with a new hope in Christ Jesus.Through each season of change He is always our Forever North. He isn't going to leave us out in the cold or let the winds and rains rush us out to sea. He is our Tower of Strength. He is our Refuge. He is the only One who never changes, but is always with us through change.
We don't have to fear those falling leaves. Stand in under them, pile them up and see the joy before you. Isn't that what children do? They plant a smile on their faces and grab that rake and dive right in. I want that child like faith.
For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. ~Edwin Way Teale
Each season has it's meaning and purpose. We never leave one without entering into another. Don't wish too fast for the next season to approach. If you could take a picture of today and sit back glancing into the image what would you see? Amidst those falling leaves is a beauty to be seen.
Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
The seeds of spring are planted and through the fall they are spread like lasting, sweet nectar. Each season carries with it blessings even in the mountains of snow that cover the ground. As each one holds a purpose may we not just look onto the next season, but look to today with new eyes able to see new beginnings that would not even be here if it were not for yesterday's change.
