Challenge Post #10
Falling Leaves are an important part of life
I don’t get out a lot. There’s so much to do taking care of my parents that I often feel homebound. But today, I’m happily sitting in the back of Amie’s car listening to my grand-daughter sing her favorite song. She’s pointing out pumpkins and halloween decorations. Once in a while she squeals pointing at a huge gold colored tree.
I’ve never heard anyone complain about the beauty of fall. We all know that fall means winter is coming with all the problems bad weather can bring. But the brilliant colors of fall still cause us to step a little lighter, find a smile and think good thoughts. We don’t seem to mind the changes. Instead we enjoy the beauty.
I wish we could think about the people in our life the same way we think about fall. Someone hurts us and instead of trying to see the why’s of the situation we label the situation unchangeable. We are sure things will never get better and our feelings about them will always be bad. We avoid them and the relationship turns sour.
I’ll admit that I’ve experienced some situations where things didn’t get better. The person remained hard and unmoveable. They couldn’t see my pain. No matter how far I bent they were never able to bend enough to meet me half way and fix the problem. They were like the plants and trees that died in the process of fall. They couldn’t be rejuvenated.
The beauty of so many of my friendships is that my friends have been like fall. They change. They try to see my side or overlook my faults or they work through their own set of problems or issues. Even when we have to go through a wintery span of time, we emerge better friends and more willing to deepen our relationship.
I think God must love fall. He put so much color and vibrance in the season. Maybe God loves change too. I know he loves to watch his children grow and change for the better. I know he loves to watch us use our talents and become the best we can be. The wonderful thing about God is that he may accept us where we are, but he never wants us to stay there. He may watch our own type of personal fall. He sees the difficult habits and problems fall away from our life. He watches us fail and wants to step in and help, but knows in the end we may trust him more if he waits for us to surrender to his wisdom and his plan. He may even cry with us when those losses cause deep hurts and make us feel dead as we suffer through the winter.
The great news is that our fall will eventually change into winter followed by spring. Spring will come and open our eyes to the knowledge that God has been there all along, open arms, waiting to make everything beautiful again. I pray that you will find brilliant hope in this fall. That you will be strengthened by the knowledge that God will walk with you through the winter and he will surprise you with a joyous spring.