Fall Leaves

The fading sun dropped quietly behind the low band of clouds on the western horizon.

Sensing a marked drop in temperature, mom added a light blanket to the twin’s beds, and her own. Good nights rang out, and darkness possessed the night sky.

The twins awoke to a muted plopping sound on the bedroom window. Timmy slowly rubbed his eyes, and then rolled over to see what was causing the noise. In a moment he was ecstatically shaking Tommy! “Wake up Tommy, look, look it’s snowing outside!” The boys jumped out of bed, rushed to the window, and gazed in awe at the pristine snow that transformed the yard into a winter wonderland. “Oh boy, let’s tell mom” they both said in unison. They whirled around, and there she was; smiling at their enthusiasm and delight.

Winter dropped her gloved hand gently over the countryside, mantling hill and dale with white fluffy snow. Children shouted with glee as they tobogganed down the slopes, while parents hovered protectively at the bottom, to see they came to a safe ending on their ride.

As each day became shorter, the snow turned to ice.

Winter’s gloved hand became an icy hold; that tightened into a deathly grip. Tim and Tommy soon tired of the incessant cold and slippery ice that tricked their impetuous feet, and brought them to the ground. They began to long for the green grass and the warmer pond-water of their swimming hole. The winter season seemed to go on forever, seeming like a huge slice of their few years of life.

Winter’s gloved hand became an icy hold

The fall leaves, now crackly, dry and dirty brown, mixed in with the snow and ice.The glamour of the first winter snow had worn off, and people were just struggling to survive; waiting for the spring to return. Against the stark cold winter skyline, the trees stood outlined; leafless, gray and bare. They appeared lifeless in their winter dress and first-time visitors to this region would think they were only good for firewood. In northern regions, many people become extremely depressed as they endure long extended, and icy, winters such as these.

One morning in February Tim and Tommy stepped outside the kitchen door.

In a still snow-covered flower bed on the left, there were tiny green shoots, valiantly pushing their way through the snow. The twins’ eyes widened, they stood in wonder at the sight; then called their mom to come and look. She knew what they were and told Tim and Tommy not to touch them, but to come and look each day at the same little flower bed.

Seven days, later while snow still lay around them, yellow daffodils began to blossom in the flower bed. These were early harbingers of spring. Winter was preparing her reluctant retreat.

In Genesis 8:22 God said “while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

The promises of God are immutable and eternal, so while we endure winter, we expect spring to follow.

There are seasons of life for every one of us, but they also follow immutable and eternal patterns of God’s ordaining. God can also bring new life and hope into seemingly impossible situations that you have no control over.

Next time you find yourself in a winter period of life, look forward, depending upon God’s promise that he can bring new life where it seems like there is nothing but death around. If you find it hard to believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead, remember God’s pattern of seasons, and remember that God is the God of new life.