There is something glorious in each season, but there is no season quite like fall.
God has given us this world to enjoy, and fall is a reminder of that truth. He paints the trees and bids us enjoy His handiwork, though only for a brief season.
Sometimes the leaves change in varying stages. Other times the leaves change all at once.
In South Dakota, there weren’t as many trees, but there was still tremendous beauty. I remember in 2012, one of the hottest years I’ve experienced, when all the leaves changed at once. I had the privilege of driving through Spearfish Canyon several times to enjoy the innumerable cottonwood trees that complimented the Black Hills’ pines.
A little more than two years later, I moved to Tennessee near the Great Smoky Mountains. Trees everywhere! I was excited for my first fall in October of 2015.
One thing that was a little disappointing about Tennessee was that it did not have the maple reds that Michigan (where I grew up) had. So, I was excited one October day when I drove into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and went to one of my favorite trails: Laurel Falls. There I saw red leaves in abundance.
That day, I put up on Facebook: Sevierville friends, I don’t care what you are doing, come up now into the GSMNP! It’s peak color!
The whole fall is beautiful, but to see that one day where everything seems to have turned together is just other-worldly.
I don’t have to travel far, though, to see and experience the leaves. My own yard provides an amazing variety of colors for me to enjoy. Some of my favorite pictures are those of my daughters running across a yard with the backdrop of the colors of the oaks, the beeches, the dogwoods, a Norway spruce pine.
People spend millions of dollars to come and see trees as their leaves change color. My neighborhood is filled with a huge variety of trees and colors in the fall. One thing I have emphasized to my wife is that we need to make sure we are enjoying what we have right in front of us.
And that is one of the most important message of life: enjoy what’s in front of you! Fall is a brilliant reminder of that. “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving . . .” (1 Tim. 4:4).