It struck me today that this process is actually none other than the slow but steady onset of DEATH and decay, and so in a sense it is really weird that I find so much beauty in it. Doesn’t seem right – except for one thing: I know that Spring is coming.
If I didn’t know that Spring would be coming in a few months, this process of dying would cease to be beautiful and wondrous and instead become sad, depressing, and terrible. But the hope and assurance of Spring coming just around the bend CHANGES EVERYTHING. This knowledge and hope makes it possible for beauty to exist even in the processes of death and decay.
Here’s an alliterative Autumn poem of hope for y’all:
Brown becomes beautiful because Bright beckons, bursting by and by…
Spiritually speaking, we all live in Autumn and Winter, but praise be to God that those of us who trust and follow Christ can live daily in the hope of Spring.
Enjoy the beauty of Autumn this year, and hear these encouraging words of hope from the Bible:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Ephesians 1:18-19a)
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)
…we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure… (Hebrews 6:18b-19a)
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)
