Journey

I love fall! I love cooler weather and pumpkins and hot chocolate and sweaters and rich colors and soup and Halloween and...

But most of all, I love the trees. I love the colors changing. It is such a mystery to me how it all works and why. Yes, I studied it in school and know the facts. But why? Why did God make it work this way? Why the cycle of slowly dying and falling and then blooming again? It is a delicate, deep mystery that leaves me feeling content.

I have a favorite tree this year. It is on my way home and I have been watching it for almost two weeks now. It was so slow to begin to turn. Other trees in this same yard were brillant colors of yellow and red but this one stayed green for a long time. Then one day last week I noticed that it had begun the process. But my tree didn't proceed in the normal pattern. The leaves on the tips of branches were red. In the middle, golden yellow. Inside, still spring green. The tree stayed this way for seven days! It was as if it was frozen in time.

Yesterday, I saw that overnight the yellow had creeped to the inside of the tree and the red had moved to the middle. Those inital rubies had fallen to the ground. I was sad to see that tree change. I had come to look forward to seeing it everyday on my way home.

We are that way aren't we? Even when we know something can't and shouldn't stay a certain way, we are sad when it changes. I was reminded that change is the way of life. It moves us forward at all time toward new blooms, new life.

I was also blessed by this tree that had it's own way to go about change. It didn't take the typical pattern or speed of change. It was moving just as it should have, at it's own pace and in it's own way. Beautiful!

Life is about change. Life in God is about changing to look more like Jesus all the time. That change requires the death of some parts of us and new life to grow in their place. Change occurs in each individual at their own pace and in their own way. God created each of us to walk a unique path, a journey all our own. But in the infinite wisdom, we were placed in a forest who has the same ultimate purpose: change.