A Beautiful Season.....

I drove into our back driveway and sat in the car facing what was once our beautiful backyard where I dreamed of Awan some day dancing with her daddy at a beautiful wedding reception with twinkle lights that would be swaying with them in the trees. As tears streamed down my face I noticed that the tire swing was swinging alone, in the wind. Only a month ago she was laughing and giggling and soaring in the air with each push from her Dad. Zadyn was inspecting his fish pond and trying to cover the fact that he really just like to get into the water with them. And Tad was riding his bike in the driveway so proud of his newest accomplishment. I was sitting at the small bistro table sipping coffee and talking with my oldest daughter.  We were a happy family, living a beautiful life together but now these are now just ghostly memories of what was.

Fall is one of my favorite seasons. Not that I just get to wear sweaters and and flip-flops at the same time, but that it is beautiful. The trees are an array of mixed color and in some sense the trees are imitating fireworks that just seem to last. There is a difference in the way the sun shines against the blue grey sky and the colors of the grass with the golden glow of the bean fields. You get a sense that the colors are highly saturated. They are so bold. The light seems to pick out what it wants to and highlights certain areas and sends it a glow. This is a beautiful season.

As I was admiring the color and light dancing across the fields as I drove Awan home from school, I realized the reality of Fall. This is the stage just before the end, where in a few weeks these trees will be left bare, for a time being. Just a few months ago these very trees were just budding out and blooming and now they are in the grand finale of their beauty, their season is almost over. We don't look at fall and winter as the end. We see that it is a stage that will soon bring new life. God allows new life to come from something bare and something that may seem lifeless. We don't agonize over the leaves lost but we instead look forward to spring when new life will begin again.  The same applies to my dreams, though they seem to have fallen and my tree may seem bare, I am promised that soon new buds will blossom and new life will begin.

A Time for Everything
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

3 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.