Monday, May 09, 2005

 

Autumn




By Ramone - May 1, 2005

This is a picture I thought of as I laid down in my futon the other night. The timing of it is a message from God to us (we went through a painful loss recently). Autumn is a time when you see "summer" pass away, when your hopes and joys in the sunshine & warmth must fade away and fall to the ground, and you know only bitter cold lies ahead. But by faith you know that spring is coming.

I first understood and embraced "autumn" back in October, and wrote a sort of diary poem about it after walking among the tall trees of Utsubo-koen park in Osaka:

(October 6 & 7, 2004)

"Autumn"

I let go
I drop my leaves
I open my hands

Come winter! Come cold
and biting frost!
It can only bring me
closer to Spring.

I release.
All my covering beauty
I reach to You

Here I will stand
I cannot be uprooted
You have planted me
and made winter... for me

I'm falling all my leaves, offering all of me
Jesus, You're all this tree is living for.

It's not a season of fading, withering, dying.
It is a time of surrender to Your will,
a time of trusting You to keep life.
I willfully fall for You and will be raised by You,
Eternal Spring.

Seasons come and go. I used to fear them, not wanting to let go of the joy & comfortableness I'd adjusted to. But now I am not afraid. I welcome the seasons. They're Your gifts to keep me standing and trusting You, the Maker of all.


Comments:
It was interesting to find, after the fact, that tall autumn trees are on the front of Philip Yancey's book, "Where is God when it hurts?" which I recently started reading when things got rough. I'll take that as another sign of confirmation from You, God. Thank You.
 
Huh... my reaction to autumn's season is vastly different than yours. I love autumn. I welcome it. In SoCali it's a relief from the oppressiveness of summer. In other places in the world, it's a time of great colour and crispness. But then, I like cold.

Autumn to me has always felt like a Deepening rather than a Dying, a time to revel in rather than simply passing through.

That being said, your perception is very well expressed in the picture and the poem. Good stuff.
 
Haha, Scott, pretty interesting perspective! I suppose it largely depends on where you live and how you do or don't like the passing of more comfortable weather, hehe. (Ahem, to all Canadians).

But hey, biologically speaking, it's a time when stuff does fall off and die, and the crops are harvested (if they stay out longer, they'll be ruined & die). Yet like you said, it's beautiful!

God has designed that time of dying, and it seems like maybe we're the only ones in nature that anticipate death's coming with such dread... maybe because we've lost touch with our Creator, lost sight of the eternal Spring Himself.

In Him, life is a season, I suppose. And autumn, though maybe hard and with much withering, shriveling & dying, is also beautiful.

It reminds me of the text, "Precious in His eyes is the death of His saints."
 
I agree with your reply to Scot, I look at it as a dying to self and a rebirth in Christ. NML
 

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