When Dead Things Fall

I watch the colors fall like rain around me, making my heart dance. And I've decided one thing, I'm in love with the colors. I'm in love with the fact that things don't stay the same. My God is one who is always doing something new. He is always making all thing new.

He created our world to move like that. It begins in the summer, where everything is alive, things are new and breathing. My heart beats to the life I see. When I awaken, it isn't hard to look around and agree with my lungs, "Oh yes, keep breathing." I see life and beauty. I see love and adventure. With every heartbeat my soul sings gratitude. My mouth whispers for life to stay like this forever. If I only knew the definition of forever.

Fall comes though, the air becomes crisp. And I begin to see something glorious happen. The fierce green turns into blazing colors. The colors I only dreamed of in the summer.

Crisp autumn air fills my lungs, the leaves crunch beneath my feet. The wind whispers of the change that's coming. The clouds restlessly move across the sky, unable to stay in one position for long.  The leaves, the stunning leaves, comes vivid colors.

Blazing fire red.

A dying sun's orange glow.

The color of happiness, yellow.
When dead things fall, it's beautiful. Oh, how stunning the colors are when they glint in the light, blanketing the slowly dying grass. 

Part of me longs for the constant summer sun tinting the color of my skin, while the other part of me is thriving on the still, small voice that says, "Behold, I am doing a new thing." 

 The part about fall that is the hardest to take is the cold. It comes with the beauty of the falling of leaves. Without the foreseen bitter, those beautiful colors would never dance across the sky.

I take it in stride, keeping my eyes on the beauty. My eyes flicker back though to the warmth, the adventures and the joy.

The truth of the word of God breezes across my heart "forgetting what lies behind, straining towards what is ahead."

His future looked a lot dimmer than mine. Shipwrecks, beatings, persecution, being stoned and whippings. 

The future I'm frightened to see doesn't have quite that threat. Why is it so hard to forget what I've left behind? 

"Behold, I am doing a new thing." The constant words, the consistency of the promise.

But seriously, I look at Paul. The one who claimed to be the scum of the earth, the one who told us of things that instill fear, the one who brought to us a Gospel unlike any other, a Father of our faith. I look at Paul who stands, a prisoner on a ship that has been in a storm for 14 days, lead the shipmates in thanksgiving to God. Because He was confident God would save them. This is the man that says this,

"For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

I have learned the secret.

 Oh Paul, enlighten me! What is the secret?

Why didn't he tell us the secret?

He wanted us to experience the joy of learning. 

I am learning.

Let me enlighten you though. The secret is Jesus. Who else could bring contentment in starvation. Or in my current case, of facing plenty. Who else but Jesus could bring that contentment?

Who else could wash a peace over my heart as I watch beauty fall to the ground. I could see death, but I see promises of life. 

Who else is there?

He has promised me He is doing a new thing. I am confident in His promises. I am confident in His love. I am learning the secret of contentment.

I watch the leaves again, and I see more than these dead leaves falling. I see dead roots within lives around me falling, dying beautifully. Winter threatens fear and isolation. Winter reminds me of a seemingly never-ending dead. But I have learned the secret of being content. I have learned the secret. Jesus.

I am learning how to know Him, who does things mysteriously and miraculously. 

I have learned the secret that with Jesus, when dead thing fall, life is just around the corner.