Savor the Sweetness

Standing beneath the branches, I looked up into a ceiling of yellow leaves turned glimmering golden by the rays of the setting sun shining through them. Pick any one of those maple leaves and it's a lovely yellow, but paint the entire tree that same color and shine the sun right through it, and it lights up as if the leaves themselves are glowing. The tree just beside it was a radiant orange, and the one on down the lane showed off tips of red at the end of its branches. As the cool autumn wind blew, some curled-up leaves fluttered to the ground, adding to the blanket of fall colors beneath. I kicked those leaves with my feet as I walked; I reached down and threw some up into the air, hoping that a few would get stuck in my hair. Such beauty, such glory...it brings the child out of me again.

Fall in Indiana is like something I've only seen in Hallmark movies or on pictures in calendars. Fall in Arkansas is nice, and I've loved it all my life. But seeing the fall colors in Indiana, where my parents just moved this year, is like realizing that what I had come to love was just the muted version, and now I'm seeing the real thing. It's like thinking Splenda is the best thing because you've never tasted real sugar. Or loving the simple melody of a song when you've never heard it in four-part harmony. Just imagine what it will be like when we get to heaven, where everything that we love about this earth will be recreated and perfected to become the most vibrant and radiant - the most real - version of this muted world that we now live in but love so much.

Looking at those breathtaking autumn leaves, my mom asked aloud the same question that I was wondering in my heart, "What makes them change this time of year?" What makes them turn so stunningly beautiful?

To put it simply, the leaves change because the pigment that makes them green, chlorophyll, dies off with the shorter days and colder nights. This allows other colors that are already naturally there, to show up. In addition, the normal job of the leaf is to transport sugar to the tree. This becomes slower and more difficult in the cooler temperatures, so the leaf retains sugar, which then helps the colors to come out.

To put it in less scientific terms, the leaves have suffered a loss. They are dying. And they turn absolutely beautiful.

I wonder how much there is to learn from the leaf. The more time I spend in God's creation, the more convinced I am that every natural process teaches us something about him or, in this case, life in him. Fall is the natural process of plants dying, yet it is so extraordinary gorgeous. That's because God designed dying to be a beautiful process. We die to ourselves and find new life - vibrant, colorful, rich, abundant life - in Christ. And after we have lived this abundant life, our physical bodies die and achieve the reward we have lived our entire lives for, that is being in his presence for eternity. Everything here pales in comparison to the glory we will find there.

I also see the leaf and it's loss of chlorophyll. The shorter days and the colder nights. And what does it do with all that change? It holds onto the sugar; it holds onto the sweetness. The change doesn't make it bitter; it makes it beautiful.

I see you and me, too. The losses and hurts and pains. The days seem shorter and the nights colder. Such struggle is the process of dying - dying to ourselves and finding deeper and fuller life in Christ. That's what God does: he takes the suffering and transforms it like the colors of fall to make us more like him.

In this season, hold onto the sweetness. When the nights are long and the dying to self process is difficult, hold onto the sweetness. Sip on the nectar that comes from the source, for he is the Vine and we are the branches.

What sweetness has he given you in this season? A reminder of his love and faithfulness? A promise from his Word? A word aptly spoken? The hug of someone you love? The beauty of a sunset that you might not normally notice? Or the song of a bird from a backyard branch? Whatever that sweetness might be, hold onto it, little leaf, for the long colder nights are coming, but you will turn a glorious orange or a stunning yellow or a fiery red. You will be beautiful, even in your loss and hurt. People from all around will notice and ask, what makes him turn such colors? How has she become so beautiful? The change will not be bitter; it will be beautiful. And when the sun shines through you, you will glow.