Fall has arrived at my home — had to put on a sweater to sit in the swing this morning, made a big pot of homemade soup and a pone of cornbread for lunch, saw a limb of yellow leaves on my old oak tree. According to my Echo Dot my room is a comfy 53 degrees but I’m not turning on that gas guzzling steam boiler yet. Just put my feeted pjs over my clothes and I’m toasty. Guess I better look for my little electric heater. Have no idea where I put it last year and I have to be an acrobat to plug it in. As Scarlet O’Hara says, “After all, tomorrow is another day!” So I’ll put finding the heater on tomorrow’s agenda. Just found the heater. Penelope is napping in front of it now.

Fall is so beautifully festooned in her earthy colors, the majesty of God’s creation painted on the horizons and mountain sides, the leaves’ colors flaming across the landscape. I love watching the trees donning their colorful fall sweaters, faintly at first then dressing bold and brazen in oranges and golds and purples and reds, preparing for their aerial dances down to the ground, giving their lives as fertilizer for the earth and homes for the little critters who weather the winter in a leaf bed. “Any one who thinks fallen leaves are dead has never watched them dance on a windy day,” Shira Tamil. I call them leaf ballerinas as I watch them spin to the ground.

I love this quote by Raquel Franco — “And the sun took a step back, the leaves lulled themselves to sleep and autumn was awakened.” Thoreau’s quote makes me smile — “I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” I can hear Chief say that!

In the Bible, autumn is associated with harvesting the crops that God has blessed us with. Our lives go through cycles just like nature does and God guides every season of our lives. When we pray and study God’s words we reap the benefits of our faith. I think fall teaches us lessons of letting go of things that we don’t need. Past deeds or guilt weigh us down and when we surrender our burdens and put them God’s hands we find peace. Like the acorns and leaves falling from the branches, our troubles are discarded through faith in our loving God.

The seasons teach us how to accept change. We have to learn to let go, just like the fall leaves, and embrace the trials of change in our lives. Change is hard and we all balk when the road forks but we just have to have faith in God’s grace to show us the way to go. We can walk in the darkness of winter’s doubt or we can let God take us by the hand and lead us into the light of his love. “For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you,” Isaiah 41:13. Don’t be afraid to let go and reach for God’s hand.

“We’re in good hands when we’re in God’s hands.” — Grace Fox