Fall

Two weeks ago, I watched a leaf drop for the first time this fall.

It was breathtaking. Eric and I were driving to work at the IFC and the leaf seemed to glide timelessly through the air—right-to-left—falling on the driver’s side windshield.

While camping I watched countless other leaves fall.

Sitting streamside, in The Great Smokey Mountain National Park, I watched red, orange, and brown leaves descend, one after another, from their magnificent heights down onto the open ground around me.

I think there is something beautiful about a tree losing its leaves. To me it is the idea of starting over. Every year, regardless of how vibrant a tree is, it must start over.

Eric and I have had to do a lot of starting over on this trip. Living city- to-city, we have had to redefine ourselves countless times. Everywhere we go, we are strangers. No one knows who we are or who we have been in the past.

What this has allowed us to do is figure out who we want to become. It is a process. We are slowly trimming our branches. We are firmly laying our roots.

But what this has also allowed me to do is appreciate the fresh beginning I have in Christ. I mess-up all the time, but just like the trees, God lets my dead leaves fall.

Today, I know, I am still struggling with sin. But I take joy in watching each leaf fall. Slowly, leaf-by-leaf, my trunk is becoming bare. And although the bitterness of winter is before me, I know spring time is near. Today my leaves fall but I sit with anticipation for the day the buds will bloom again.

Christ’s Peace with You,

Kent