“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forevermore. Amen.” Romans 11:36
There is this tree down the street from our home that started turning beautiful shades of fall colors…back in August. I remember doing a double take when I noticed the green giving way to patches of yellow and orange, eventually culminating in spectacular shades of red. The colors were awesome but my mind was still in summer mode and thoughts of fall were, well, still far away.
Don’t get me wrong. I mean, after all, Fall is my most favorite time of year. The weather is more bearable than the Georgia summers. We can sit outside around a fire sipping hot chocolate and lamenting the days when we could sit closer than 6 feet and we didn’t have to wear masks everywhere. It’s just that I was still in summer mode.
I began to think that our lives progress much like the seasons. For me, I still picture myself as that young 20 something that could do most anything. That was certainly the summer of my life. Now I have to stretch just to sit and even then, I may still get a cramp! I have definitely entered, and not very gracefully into the “Fall” of my life and like the trees in our neighborhood, my colors are beginning to show, albeit mostly gray.
I read somewhere that a common reason that trees change color before they should is because they are in distress. Hmm, my body feels the distress more and more each day, but like the trees, maybe this is when we reveal our true colors. The beauty of the tree was brought about by its own personal distress, and God uses our personal distresses and pains to display His amazing grace and the beautiful colors of His glory. What an awesome God we serve.