Maybe, from a window or on a piece of property, you have looked out as someone said, “you should see the view when the leaves fall!” Or maybe as autumn continues, you notice how much more there is to see of creation. We see into the woods better, see across the road better, and especially, in Cook County, have new chances to see Lake Superior and other lakes we appreciate. When the leaves come down, what had seemed only partially visible is seen with increased clarity. Sunsets over water, grouse along the trail, deer in the woods, a child dressed as a goblin on Halloween night, and views of rivers and lakes. All more obvious, more certain. Even those who regret shortened days or cooler nights comment, “how much more we see when the leaves fall.”
There is a challenge for us, though. We enjoy seeing new sights, with a new vision, with new clarity; but we may also long for the lovely greens of a deciduous tree. We can’t choose one season or the other; we have them both. One with trees full of leaves, one with leaves piling on the ground. There is a pattern here of seeds, roots, water, sunlight, buds, and leaves; that turns to a pattern of leaves drifting down, roots moving in quiet dormancy, branches becoming bare for winter’s rest.
Our human lives, part of God’s natural world, seem part of the pattern. Sometimes we are traveling through life as if on shaded paths among trees filled with green leaves — lush, yet through which we peer for a better glimpse of what is ahead. And sometimes we travel through life, and eventually into death, as if on paths covered with fallen rustling leaves which insulate the earth and give us a clearer vision of where we are, and where we are heading. In both, and in all times between, we find reason to ponder and wonder. And just as we wander from concrete sidewalks and roadways, we wander from “everything must be clear, make absolute sense” concrete thinking.
We are given, by God, nature to see and learn from; and are given, by God, our lives. Along the journey of life, we can ponder, wonder, wander — and find in the fullness of summer and life a beauty that has us thank and praise God, even on pathways so dense that we do not see into the distance as clearly as we do when the leaves again fall.
And then, in seasons of year and life, we arrive in autumn. We begin to find ourselves seeing more clearly the gifts of God in relationships, in leaves on trees and leaves on the ground, in thick leaves that prevent us from seeing too far; and when the leaves have fallen, in branches through which we see with more insight into life’s endings and beginnings. For Christians, we speak of pilgrimage ceasing, labors resting, quietness arriving — and of new life beginning, in Resurrection life that comes after death. In Christ we then see with more certain clarity the presence and fullness of God, sharing praise of Creator and creation. The Spirit of God surrounds us in all seasons, “So that, with the eyes of hearts enlightened, we may know the hope to which God calls us…” (Ephesians 1:18).
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month our contributor is Pastor Kris Garey, Trinity Lutheran Church, Hovland.
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