TwentySomething

I love fall. I love watching the leaves cascade down from the trees; how they create a tornado of color and brightness.  I love even the distinct smell that comes with fall, as if there is an ongoing campfire; the warmth that surrounds you from all angles.

Fall is by far my favorite season.  It’s not like one year I went out thinking, ‘alright, time to stack up the seasons against one another and see which one wins’. No, fall grabbed my heart, without me even knowing it.

For me, fall is listening to Mumford and Sons on an endless cycle while drinking gallons of apple cider.  The leaves falling around you and the wind whistling in unison.  It’s as if nature is slowly coercing me to fall in love with it again and again each year.

The one thing I come back to each fall, and it always seems to leave me in a state of awe, is the magnificence of the Earth.  Just the concept that leaves change colors and fall each autumn.  God didn’t have to allow nature to demonstrate his beauty, but what a way to show us his skills.  Yes, science will show that leaves change colors due to the chlorophyll breaking down.  But why does the chlorophyll break down?

I’m no scientist, but I can’t help but think this is God showing off for us.  If our creator is an artist of sorts, his masterpiece of fall must have a meaning, right?  Here’s my idea…

Leaves change color and fall and begin anew come spring.  Everything is dark and dead in the winter, but come spring everything blooms and brings color back.  Life has trials and cycles of the same sort.  In James 1:30 he says, “consider it pure joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance”.  The leaves fall and they return new and fresh. The same can be said for us.  We have our valleys, but God brings us out of them new and brighter than ever.

When you look at the leaves changing colors and swirling around you, and you smell the scents of autumn spice think of your creator.  When I pause to take in fall I can’t help but think, how can you not believe someone created all this? Isaiah 40:26, “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing”.