Autumn Ponderings

The leaves are changing colour and dropping off the trees and shrubs. If you look closely at the base of each leaf you will find a new bud forming. These new buds are the reason the leaves are changing colour. As these new buds grow, they choke off the flow of nutrients to the leaves causing the leaves to die in a blaze of glory and fall from the trees to lie lifeless under the soon coming snow. The buds that will open after winter, may cause death now but they also bring a glimpse of hope of the new life to come.

I always go through a time of grief when the days get shorter, the air loses its warmth and the leaves start to change colour. Summer is my favourite season. Sun. Warm. Life. Blossoms. But we are promised in God’s Word that we will always have the changing of seasons. We cannot remain in our favourite season forever.

Life is no different, is it? Seasons. Wonderful, glorious seasons of joy and peace. The harsh not-so-fun seasons that take us out at the knees. Seasons of tender new life and seasons of short days and long nights.  

This fall I am a little numb to be honest. We have moved all our worldly possessions from a rental condo into newly purchased house across town, complete with our very own yard. There is much to be done here before the snow flies. Our church is in a transition at the same time. We are trying to figure out how to be the Church in the midst of this crazy Covid-19 pandemic. How do we respect our leaders and still care for our church family? Swing back to all that needs to be done in our new home…tear down rotting decks, jackhammer a ‘built-like-a-tank’ front concrete step to make room for a veranda, clearing out the dead growth in our shrubs and apple tree, getting rid of all.those.dandelions. Back to church. Back to my home. Added to this pinball game is a desire to care for my mom who is battling breast cancer. She lives in MB and I here in AB. A pinched nerve in my neck/shoulder isn’t helping. Throw in a covid-19 test and the ensuing quarantine until the results come back.

There’s little margin to ‘feel’ in this maelstrom. It seems as though my emotions have gone dormant, sort of like everything else that is preparing for winter. There is too much to feel so my heart goes into survival mode. It’s either that or ninja punch some poor unsuspecting person who crosses my path at the wrong time.

Maybe a part of me is like the autumn leaves and it needs to get pinched off so that new life can come forth in due season. The old must go so there is room for the new. Rather than bemoan the changing of the season I can choose to embrace the season I am in and look for all the beauty in it; look at the base of the leaves and the hope that is budding there instead of focusing on the fact that they are falling and signaling the end to summer.

Our guest speaker on Sunday, Charles Price, spoke about the mountains in our lives. Sometimes we just want them gone. And sometimes God does remove them. But there are times when God makes a road…not for us to get out and away from the mountain, but for him to come in, to walk into our circumstances and be with us.

“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”                        (Isaiah 43:19, NLT)

What if I hold so tenaciously to that which I am comfortable with that I miss out on an even more glorious season? Or maybe I am bracing for what I think might be uncomfortable and, in an effort to avoid what might be, I close off the blessing that will be?

We live in the middle of the wide-open prairie with farmland in every direction as far as the eye can see. These days I can smell the harvest dust as combines march across the fields gobbling up the swathes and thrashing out the grain. Though it kills my sinuses, I still love the smell of the harvest. Though it signals the end of summer, it brings with it joy and celebration; harvest is a time to feast. There would be no harvest without the springtime planting and the summer rains to make things grow. And there would be no rest if it were not for the winter where the fields are inaccessible. Every season is gift and has a specific purpose.

Jeremiah is talking about the people who are so caught up in doing life on their own – they have it figured out and don’t need anyone to tell them what to do – and in their clammouring to be their own ‘god’ he says of them:

“It never occurs to them to say, ‘How can we honor our God with our lives, The God who gives rain in both spring and autumn and maintains the rhythm of the seasons, Who sets aside time each year for harvest and keeps everything running smoothly for us?’”                          (Jeremiah 5:24, The Message)

““But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7–8, NLT)

“I will bless my people and their homes around my holy hill. And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing.” (Ezekiel 34:26, NLT) Emphasis mine

“Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem! Rejoice in the Lord your God! For the rain he sends demonstrates his faithfulness. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as the rains of spring.” (Joel 2:23, NLT)

Every season brings with it something new to replace what we are leaving behind. What season are you in? What do you need to leave behind to make room for the new thing God has in store for you? Can you see God at work in the midst of this season or feel his presence with you?

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.”                (Ecclesiastes 3:1, NLT)