Found the most beautiful maple leaf when I was walking Penelope this morning. The little leaf made me cry all the way home with memories of Chief. We used to bring each other the first glorious fall leaf we found each year. I know he sent the leaf to me from heaven, so pretty in its golden yellows and dark reds with polka dots of brown and black. The little maple leaf was a traveler on the wind, only water oaks and magnolias around me. I found a pretty crabapple leaf yesterday decked out in reds and golds and brought it home to rest near a framed photo of Chief on my desk.

The trees in my neighborhood are getting pretty, putting on their fall party clothes and their dancing costumes of purples and yellows and reds and oranges, ready to dance on the breeze, pirouetting to the ground, joining friends who danced off the limbs before them. Our trees are so important to our world and work so hard shading us, filtering the air and water, providing homes to the birds and squirrels, dropping seeds reforesting the land, giving us fruit and nuts, and beauty in the fall and spring..

In Psalm1:3 we read, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.” I think we can use trees to describe our spiritual life. When our faith is rooted deeply with God we stand tall and strong, less likely to be toppled by the storm winds that blow through our lives. God’s love and our prayers of thanksgiving are branches of faith that hold us up during life’s struggles.

We have to fertilize our Christian roots through scripture reading, praying, and following God’s commandments. Without care our faith will not yield any fruit and will wither on the vine. The root of our Christian faith is found in Mark 12:30, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

The deeper our spiritual roots are the stronger we’ll stand when we experience times of trouble in our lives. Jeremiah 17:8 says, “For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.”

God encourages us to grow our faith with deep roots and sow our seeds of faith with others. Our trees of life stand tall with God’s blessings and with God’s grace we flourish and spread our canopy of faith through our words and deeds.

“The strongest oak tree of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.” ― Napoleon Hill