The Encore!

Just in the last few days, the area we live in has burst into the vibrant colors of fall. After a heavy downpour earlier this afternoon, the sun came out and lit up the yellows, oranges and reds and made the colors more intense than they have been. Against a beautiful background of blue sky and huge, white cumulus clouds, the landscape seemed alive. A dramatic shift in the wind direction soon brought with it much cooler temperatures and cloudy skies within a few hours.

One cannot predict the moment when the trees reveal their beauty so dramatically. After weeks of watching the leaves darken in color, I begin to lament that perhaps the colors won't appear this year. And then...it happens.

Springtime has its own beauty and drama. Everything seems so "green" and fresh and new. There is the marvel of watching seemingly "dead" branches come alive again as the creative juices course through their veins once more. New growth. New life. New color. New strength. Likewise, when we are young, we have boundless energy, a desire to grow and try new things. Life is something to be explored and experienced. We see everything with hope and promise. Our culture idolizes this time of life, and individuals spend enormous time and money in trying to either recapture it or make it last forever.

But I find great comfort in seeing that God has provided a tremendous "encore" in his creation which occurs, not at the beginning of life, but near the end of the life cycle. The colors in the leaves are there all the time, but it is only when the chlorophyll recedes in the tree that these amazing colors are revealed to all. Isn't that the way our lives should be? After a lifetime of living, working, producing, shouldn't our latter years reveal the beauty that has been there all the time, hidden from view? If God has been our strength and sustainer all along, then more of him will be revealed as more and more is taken from us in this world. We become less and he becomes more. He has provided a perfect example!

A Special Gift

It never gets old. It never ceases to amaze me. The birth of a new child.

This week, we were given the privilege to see our first grandson come into the world and begin his journey here. My thoughts once again turn to how something so complicated, so intricate and amazing can be created in just 9 months. (I'm sure my daughter-in-law would challenge my thinking that this is a "short" amount of time!) And then...in one day, that child emerges from a watery world into one filled only with air...and he BREATHES, and he hears, and he feels, he sees, and he eats. What a miracle to behold! What a reminder that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made". Welcome, little Matthew!

For you created my inmost being; 

you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

your works are wonderful, 

I know that full well. 

My frame was not hidden from you 

when I was made in the secret place, 

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 

Your eyes saw my unformed body; 

all the days ordained for me were written in your book 

before one of them came to be. 

How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God! 

How vast is the sum of them! 

Were I to count them, 

they would outnumber the grains of sand— 

when I awake, I am still with you.

- Psalm 139:13-18