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Beauty in Changing




This time of year is beautiful in the Midwest. The weather is cooling, drawing us to our hoodies, cozy sweaters and long forgotten jeans. Yards are decorated with cornstalks, pumpkins and fancy scarecrows. On trash days, curbs are lined with bags and bags of dead leaves and other yard waste as home owners ready their home for the coming cold months. And then there are the trees.

I've taken a walk the last few nights with Lucas around our neighborhood and enjoyed the changing foliage much more than my twelve year old nephew. I'm a picture person. He's a get it done kind of kid. I stop a LOT to admire scenery. His mind has already completed the walk and is on to his next video game. He is often a block ahead of me before he realizes I stopped to admire a pinecone on the ground or a beautiful leaf on the road.

I saw this quote and it resonated with me again: 

 

Isn't that great? Humans resist change. We have readily displayed that ever since Covid-19 disrupted our lives and thrown us all into a masked society who literally knows nothing of what lies around the corner for them. We've all had to change. And most of us have complained about it. A lot.

So as I've enjoyed seeing the beauty of the changing leaves, it's prompted me to again remember the beauty in dying...even the beauty in dead things. This leaf is beautiful. It's also dead now. It's no longer clinging to its source of life. Kind of a morbid thought, huh?


But this leaf wasn't created to last forever. It's Creator (coincidentally, He's YOUR Creator, too!) created it with a purpose, with a season to provide the benefits of oxygen, shade and beauty for only a time, then He knew it was to turn this vibrant shade of burgundy before being released of its duty and fluttering to the ground. Its life is complete. (I chose to give it a bit longer shelf life, if you will, but adding it to my inside decor for a few weeks.)

This post wasn't meant to herald dying as a noble cause to aspire to though that last paragraph speaks to it. I hope that you will be able to grasp that the world might continue to change at a rapid pace, but our Creator doesn't change. I desire for you to know His unchanging love in a world that tends to love you only if you believe exactly as they do. And, I pray you will know the changes in your life can produce beauty. Attach yourself to the Source of Life and see what happens!

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