God's Beauty Pageant of Nature

I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.-Deuteronomy 11:14


I think Fall is the most amazing season of the year.  Nature is beginning to go into hibernation.  But it sure doesn't go quietly!  First there is a burst of Fall wild flowers... and they are the flowers with the deepest colors... dark gold and brown asters and deep blue lavender.  But if that's not enough, God astonishes us with the annual leaf extravaganza of color.  There is nowhere on earth like the North Carolina mountains in the Autumn.  Gorgeous!


But why?  Wouldn't it all work out just as well if the leaves simply dropped to the ground without turning color?  Why would flowers need to bloom so late in the year?  They won't last very long... what is the purpose?


As someone who spent most of her childhood and youth in South Florida where the seasons don't change much, I see this final burst of beauty as having only one purpose.  It is an extravagant gift of God only for the purpose of bringing joy to his children.  


I love the changes of both Spring and Autumn, but it is the beauty of a mountainside of trees dressed in red, gold and orange that makes me gasp out loud in awe.  I know that some dreary winter days of cold, rainy weather on bare trees and brown grass are coming, but I don't mind so much when it is preceded by the wonder of God's beauty pageant of nature.


Father,
Thank you for the wonders of every season, but thank you for showing us that there is even beauty in death.  We praise you that we know that in a few months all that has died will be resurrected in the Spring when all the earth comes alive again.  Amen.


Joys:  hearing how much Cecelia enjoyed her first day at day care; finally receiving my certified copy of my birth certificate (you have no idea how hard it is to get from another country these days!); Lunch with a friend