Since I can remember, I’ve been the little girl that loved to
soak up every moment of summer. No school, bikes, pools. But something in me has shifted in the last few
years. After years of summer confidently
standing in the number one spot, fall has wiggled its way in to gain the gold. Maybe it was my first Phoenix summer a few
years ago that began a wedge between summer and me. At just that time, I returned to Minnesota
for the most magical season of color and crispness. Some of my favorite moments with the Lord
have been spent running or sitting along a lovely walking path that parallels
the Mississippi River that splits Minneapolis from St. Paul. The path is best in fall with massive deciduous
trees shedding color combinations only God himself could create. The crisp air on this girl’s face inspired
and empowered me with new energy; perhaps a necessary jolt before the
winter hibernation set in.
It’s the perfect time of year for a walk with a sweater and
scarf. Just when it gets a little too
chilly, you can find your way into a cozy coffee shop that smells of sweet
cider drinks and warm conversation.
There’s just something about this season. Fall makes me feel alive and romanced. I grieved missing the leaves, the orchards,
and the sweatshirt weather this year as I sit by the pool in capris and a
t-shirt. The desert doesn’t do fall quite
like Minnesota or New England, but there are echoes of the same refreshing
sentiment. I love the smell of fire pits
in the evening and the ability to be outside again after our season of summer
hibernation.
This season just resonates in me. Its beauty and romance are just captivating to me and I wanted to figure out why. Why is a
season of death so stunning? That’s
really what it is. The trees shedding
their dead and burying them into expired lawns. It’s a gorgeous death. I got a little concerned for a bit that maybe
at my core, I was enamored with a season of dying and my future will be
resigned to reading Poe and wear black jackets and eyeliner.
But I don’t think that’s the case. What if God, at the fall of humanity, weaved
His redemption narrative into creation?
I mean, that sounds pretty simple, right? We see dead things making soil rich to bring
new life. New growth emerges from out of
the snowy winter. We see parallel stories
to Christ everywhere. Maybe it’s been
obvious to everyone else all along, but I have been captured these past few weeks
by this notion: God weaved a season of
beautiful death into creation’s rhythm so it would already be familiar to our
souls.
Think about it. Death
is the most ugly thing in existence. It
can be gory, gross, the most destructive and permanent part of life. It goes against everything we are as created
beings to find death beautiful. So
perhaps God did some foreshadowing in nature to prepare us and familiarize our
beings with this seemingly oxymoronic concept that is essential to the
Gospel. Jesus took the most horrid death
imaginable and redefined love and beauty where a curse once lived. It’s a stretch for us to believe that God not
only makes beautiful things out of the dust and dead, but He made death itself beautiful. God shedding and killing our old selves to make us look more like him is beautiful death. In a very literal way, letting go of life here to enter into eternity will be the most beautiful and true moment our souls will ever know. I struggle to grasp it all, but Fall helps me to
trust it’s possible. I’m grateful today
that God helps us see images of His truth in what He’s created because He knows
our lack of faith and understanding. What
a good Dad.
Some of the most wonderful glory I’ve witnessed has been
through this season of death. It’s
taught me to pay attention in other life seasons where death seems to
prevail. In relationships, in jobs, in health, in tragedy. The promise stands that God is
making it beautiful. If we don’t stop and take a walk among what is dying,
we may miss the beauty He’s painting into death to woo us, comfort us, and draw us further into His romantic
story of redemption. May we never miss
it.
Shelly I love this! Beautiful. Maybe this will help me to stop being so angry at winter :-)
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