Fall has come, another year has almost passed. We are closing in on a new year, if the Lord so allows. I pray many of you have taken time this year to enjoy the many blessings God has given you freely, joyfully and bountifully. Fall to me is cocoa, sweaters, beautiful golden sunrises and sunsets, persimmons, pomegranates, pecans, deer, Thanksgiving, peanuts, squirrels, geese, brightly colored leaves set against a palette of an azure sky, pumpkins, corn stalks, hay bales, falling leaves and a slowing down as the year comes to an end. An end to the relentless heat, and welcome relief of cool air to enjoy the outdoors again. Texas has long summers that normally start sometime in May and can last as long as mid October. We get cool fronts, but cool in Texas can mean 90 degrees. Still warm, but a welcome relief from the 104 degree days we normally have. Those not native to Texas have a difficult time understanding our weather, but then we have a difficult time understanding it ourselves.
The geese will soon be headed south for the winter, and though most don’t welcome geese to their yards (for they are very messy) they do have a unique beauty all their own when they fly in formation. Sometimes at night I can hear them as they make their way south. It’s a beautiful sound when you hear them. And though some don’t like crows, I enjoy hearing them as well. One of the sounds of fall which most don’t hear, but I do. I rejoice in it all and I am most grateful to Him who gave me eyes to see His magnificent creation, ears to hear the sounds He has given nature, and the ability to taste His bountiful harvest. A most lovely time of the year, though in some respects a bitter sweet time of year for me.
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. . . .” Ecclesiastes 3:1
“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22
“And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.” Acts 1:7
“He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.” Psalms 104:19
“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.”
Genesis 1:14
“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11
Enjoy this time of year and slow down to appreciate and give God the glory and thanksgiving for the beauty of life and all His creation. Especially for His Son whom He gave that we might have the hope of eternal life.
“But however fleeting and changeable life may appear to be on the surface, we know that the great underlying values of life are always the same; no different today than they were a thousand years ago.” ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
Eileen Light