Pastor’s Page

Autumn is my favorite season, though I don’t think I’d want it to go on forever. There’ssomething nostalgic about the scents of autumn, the foliage with rich changing colors, the foods and holidays, traditions like apple picking and leaf piles, and cooler weather after a hot summer.I’m writing this article at Heartwood Conference Center in northern Wisconsin, sitting on the balcony looking at the lake and reflecting on God’s world and what I can learn from autumn.

In autumn, the creativity of God seems to holler. Look at these things! These paper-thin solar cells that convert sunlight into acorns! (One just dropped in front of me.) They’re everywhere,and they’re made by a God who doesn’t know how to stop creating. Autumn reminds us that there’s a world of wonder. It truly forces us to stop and look and listen.

I never want to live where there is no changing of the seasons, each season has so much to teach us. Let’s look at autumn. I spent some time with my parents a couple of weeks ago, and I thought, my parent’s leaves are changing. Their color is silver rather than red, but the glory is the same. They may not have quite the same speed, but they have wisdom and grace and decades of joy that shine in their faces. They’re taking on the beauty of autumn.

Inevitably, autumn’s beauty and wonder fades into winter’s chilled silence. Autumn doesn’t stay;it fades and falls away just like the leaves on the trees. Autumn reminds us that our leaves too will die. This is a sobering thought. Just like autumn, we will not last forever on this earth.Winter is a stark reminder that there is a price for the curse we were born under…but there ishope.

Autumn can draw our attention to the one man who broke through winter into an unending summer. The one who spent three days brown and dead in the dirt and came back in anindestructible green. The one who wasn’t just a leaf; he was a whole new tree.

Take some time to look and listen to what God might be saying to you this autumn. Give thanks for the gift of nature.