Leaves...

Today while out for my run/walk I just could not help but notice the intense beauty of the leaves this fall.  I honestly cannot remember a fall more beautiful.  Day after day the weather is the same.  Cool in the evening and morning with bright, sunny, warm afternoons.  It's becoming so routine that I barely have to watch the weather anymore, and that is rare indeed for this part of the country where if you don't like the weather just stick around for a day and it will surely change.

Today I stopped and stood underneath one of the most beautiful Oak trees I have ever seen.  Within the tree was various shades of green, gold, red and orange.  In fact, upon further inspection some of the leaves themselves held all four of those colors within them.  The tree across the street had already lost all of it's leaves, others were almost "raining" leaves on me as I passed underneath and still other held all their leaves still green and gently swaying in the wind.  As I pondered this, I wondered why is it that given the same weather and location why would some trees be completely bare while others had not even began to change color? Then I further wondered why some 81 year-old people are still active and engaged in their lives and the lives of others, while others have already passed away and still others, like my mom, remain with us but yet not as she once was.

It would seem that it is God's order of things. Some things within his creation last but for a day.  Some for months or years and others for a decades or more than a century.  And perhaps it is the combination of all those things that add such beauty. What a wonder to gaze upon a hill full of trees at this time of year (Ohio comes to mind) with the beautiful display of color; green, red, orange, yellow...all mixed together. What a beautiful representation of a family where within the generations are green, red, orange, all together composing God's masterpiece and each completing their mission of time of earth.  Ecclesiastes 3:1 "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."