I had the privilege of touring New England last October when the colors of the fall foliage were at their peak. I journeyed by bus from Tennessee to Maine; and, like Bilbo and Gandalf, our pilgrimage took us there and back again. Each of us travelers had many tales to tell of the blessings and beauty of God’s creation.
October has always been my favorite month. I love its “bright blue weather” and its cool, crisp temps. The gradual change in the colors of the leaves reminds me of the passage of time and the progression of the seasons—the purposes for which we are all created.
Hannah Hall’s God Bless Our Fall (©2015 by Thomas Nelson and illustrated by Steve Whitlow) aptly depicts God’s blessings of this season. From raccoons to hedgehogs, God’s critters partake of the fullness of fall. When temps begin to drop, the animals adorn their warmer wear:
I’m zipped up to the tippy top.
It’s getting cool out there.
That chilly wind means fall begins—
We feel it in the air!
Families also have fun while working hard together. Some of my fondest memories involve jumping into a pile of leaves as a child when I lived on a street called Woodland Drive. Like these hedgehogs, my father loved to work and play.
“Let’s take a break,” my daddy says.
“We’ve worked so hard all day.”
When he’s nearby, I jump sky high,
‘Cause Daddy loves to play.
All the creatures, from the puppy dogs to the piglets, share in the blessings and the gratitudes of the season.
As I watch the squirrels scamper among the limbs and leaves in my own back yard, I reflect upon these blessings and the fullness of God’s seasons in our lives.
As Ecclesiastes tells us, “For everything there is a season”; and like Queen Esther, we all have a purpose and have been created “for such a time as this.”
Like the acorn in Max Lucado’s The Oak Inside the Acorn (©2006 by Thomas Nelson and illustrated by George Angelini), we all travel through the seasons of our lives with a purpose.
When a tiny acorn falls to the ground, he worries about letting go because he fears what might lie ahead:
The thought of letting go and leaving the safety of his mother’s branches was scary to Little Acorn. So he tried not to think about it. But deep down inside, he knew the time was coming. One by one, his brothers and sisters had been letting go and saying good-bye. They had been afraid, too. But their mother had assured them with the same words: “Within you is a great oak. Just be the tree God made you to be.”
Each time he heard this, Little Acorn would look at himself and say, “An oak, in me?” He was so small, it was hard for him to believe he could ever be a tree.
Later, when the acorn grows into a mighty oak, he provides shade for a young girl. The oak tree hears the young girl reflecting on her future:
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to be. . . It’s hard to let go. . . How can I know who I am?”
As the oak tree listens to the girl’s concerns, he shakes loose one of his acorns and lets it fall into her lap. She realizes God’s purpose for this acorn is like His purpose for her when she says,
“Now, it’s time for me to let go and become the person God made me to be.”
“Praise God from Whom all blessings flow”!
God gives us bountiful blessings, and He guides us through our seasons when we give Him the reins. When we let go and allow Him to work within us, we can become what He made us to be.
“God decorates what He creates!”—Hannah C. Hall
Like tiny acorns, when we let go and let God, we may experience awesome transformations! We may need to let go of one season so that we can embrace another.
God, please bless our fall and the changing of our personal seasons. Help us to grow in your grace and in your knowledge. Amen.
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”—Ephesians 2:10
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”—Albert Camus
“It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon.”—Sarah Addison Allen
Isaiah 60:22; Galatians 4:4; Daniel 2:21; Genesis 1:14
