Autumn

This is a wonderful season. I enjoy the way autumn engages the senses—the feel of a brisk breeze, the sound of acorns crunching beneath your feet, the haunting symphony of geese chasing a warmer day, the taste of apple cider and persimmons, the beauty of a red maple ablaze like a sunset, the pungent aroma of the walnut husks I lob at the squirrels.

Autumn is a time of abundance and cornucopias, but its beauty is short-lived and signals the end of things that were once vibrant. The green growth of summer begins to die. The attractiveness of the pumpkins and the mums and the vibrant autumn colors give way to decline. Darkness increases as days become colder and shorter. 

Autumn whispers: change is coming. This is a transition season—a time of letting go. The end of something is approaching.  

I sometimes wonder if Adam and Eve lost paradise in autumn. Though I know the Bible does not mention the specific fruit, autumn is the season of ripening apples . . .  

But it is this season, more than any other, in which seeds are planted. In autumn, nature scatters the seeds that will bring new growth in the spring, and scatters them with abandon. There is life in each seed. That is the hope of autumn—the great anticipation that the seeds that are being buried today will burst forth with new life in a season to come.

Humans plant seeds in springtime. God plants seeds in autumn.

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest . . .

Great is God’s faithfulness.