The Blessing of Autumn

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

I love fall! It never fails to bring about a "nesting" instinct within me. After enjoying the sultry days of summer and time spent outdoors, autumn brings the refreshing arrival of cooler temperatures. The rapidly falling leaves foretell the near arrival of the next season to come, and remind me to savor the beauty of fall, because it will only be here for a brief time.

Since I was a young child, autumn was always a special time, and I can still vividly recall the scents of the old farmhouse kitchen where I grew up.  It instilled in me a desire to cook and bake at the first sign of changing leaves.  This year I've been blessed by a bounty of apples and pumpkins from the abundant gardens of friends and family. There is applesauce to be made and pumpkins to be pureed and frozen. It's the season of fat juicy apple dumplings, cinnamon laden apple pies, moist pumpkin bread, and spicy sweet pumpkin pies. It's the time of the year when pots of homemade soups show up on the menu more often along with freshly baked loaves of bread or rolls. I had to fire up the old black wood stove a few days ago, and although that is my least favorite thing about fall, I am thankful for a warm home to live in as the crisp fall wind splatters rain against my windows.

It's also the time of the year when I start to think about pulling out my latest quilting project that was sorely neglected over the busy summer months. Darkness settles in a little earlier each day, and longer evenings allow more time for sewing projects.  Fall brings with it a longing to curl up in a cozy blanket with a good book and a steaming mug of hot chocolate or tea.

I've been thinking about how blessed I am to live in an area where we experience a noticeable change of seasons. They each have a unique beauty of their own, and I'm so thankful for the change each one brings with it. Here in the mountains, autumn is indeed a beautiful season, a season filled with the rich abundance of God's blessings!

Lessons From The Leaves

 I was delighted to read this quote in our monthly church newsletter:

"The time of the falling leaves has come again...How beautifully the leaves grow old! How full of light and color are their last days!" ~John Burroughs

In recent days my mountain nest has come alive with new colors, and even on the most dreary and rainy days the woods are illuminated with sun-like splashes of yellow and orange. How beautifully the leaves do grow old! Perhaps we could take some lessons from the leaves.

We live in a culture that is very youth-oriented. Numerous products appear almost daily on the market claiming to make us look younger. Advertisements abound for anti-wrinkle creams, vitamin supplements, and pills that boast about their ability to prevent aging. Lets face it, we are growing older each day. That's a fact of life, and no matter how hard we try to avoid the aging process, it's going to happen. No lotion or cream can stop it. 

What a blessing it is to know God will sustain us even as we age! While our youth-focused culture may look past older people in favor of youth and physical attractiveness, God is always with us even as our gray hairs become more noticeable each day. He sees our inward beauty, not our outward appearance. And unlike the physical aging process, when we age spiritually, we only grow more beautiful in our faith. When we cultivate inward beauty, our faces will glow with the peace and contentment that comes only through having a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father. When we adorn ourselves with quiet and gentle spirits, that are of great worth to Him, we will be much more beautiful than any cream or lotion could make us at any season of life, and even more so as we grow older.  

As we enter the fall season of our lives and beyond, our faces will be radiant with His love, and our true beauty will shine as bright as the changing leaves in Autumn. 

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isaiah 46: 4