Autumn Brings Change

 

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the Fall"
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Job 14:14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

Change. Seasons change and with them life.  Life comes with many seasons.  We live in a world of change.  Every change concerning us, with the time and season of it, is unalterably fixed and determined by a Supreme Power, and we must take things as they come, for it is not in our power to change what is appointed for us.

Autumn is a season of change, transition and renewal.  Everything is dying.  But too, if you notice, Autumn brings such beautiful colors.  As their bright green colors fade, the leaves eventually turn to such brilliant colors of crimson, gold, red and orange, offering us a wonderful spectacle to behold, a brushstroke of genius only God can artfully paint.  Then, those leaves must fall, leaving that beautiful tree bare and vulnerable as it must survive the harshest of seasons.  It seems they fall almost as quickly as they change.  The tree must go through that season to begin a new life, a new cycle, with budding blossoms fragrant and beautiful.  In order to flourish into a new season, the trees must let go of its decayed leaves.  The leaves fall from their branches as the wind sweeps in.  The swirling leaves are stirred by the wind as they fall.  The change is happening.  The transition has come.  The renewal is essential.

For us, this season of life can be the hardest.  It moves us into a real cold time.  Autumn is a short time for us, yet it brings major changes.  Change is hard, but there is beauty there that we do not yet see.  The air gets cold around us and there has to be a dying out to life at this time.  Just as the trees must let go of their decayed leaves, we must let go of any unnecessary weight in our lives.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1)

What are you holding on to that may be preventing a freshness to the new season ahead?  What is hindering your fresh relationship with God? Let it go!

All glory comes then when you dare to begin, dare to change, ushering in each new season, and forever trusting God with each unpredictable new step.  Never stop believing and growing.  We can never fully know what God's intentions are for us, but we can always do our absolute best with where He has placed us right now.  Only then, when we have learned all there is to learn and are truly grateful in this place, this season, will God move us to a new, more bountiful, and blessed season.

Get ready.  The windy time it brings sort of just sweeps us into our next season.  But no worries, this next season brings clarity.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Connie J. Schmoll