Red and gold leaves drift softly as I cradle a mug of hot chocolate. It’s nearly October, and autumn has arrived. Kind of.

I’m in the South, so the leaves are still green, though with brown tips, curling, and wilted from the intense heat. I’m chugging ice water to stay hydrated and fanning my face to keep my makeup from smearing down my neck. It’s False Fall, with a cruel hint of cool mornings. Sweaters are put on in the morning and carried home on the arm at night. 

We wait impatiently.

Fall is like the grand finale at a fireworks display. The leaves turn vibrant and then fall all around us, covering the fading grass with a blanket of color.

The Summer flowers die back to the ground and spread their seeds. The leaf blanket is messy, brown and dry, sometimes wet and slimy after a rain.

Winter arrives, the air turns cold, and the sky becomes grey. The outdoors isn’t as pretty during winter, except for the first few days of snow if we’re lucky enough to get some. The days grow shorter and the nights longer. It’s a time for rest, aside from the busy Christmas season.

There’s a wistful feeling in the air and memories of people long gone.

Our lives can change in an instant—the joy of birth, the struggles and pleasures of life, and the inevitability of death. 

The emergency room doctor entered the family waiting room. I realized later that they brought us here not for good news, but for bad. My Poppy had died. He was 87, had a good, long life, but I never imagined a world without him. Others around me were crying, but I just stared at the doctor standing in front of me. Surely one of the nurses would burst in and tell us a miracle had happened, and Pop would be going home with us. 

My Daddy’s death was an unexpected and unwanted change in my season of life. 

God knows we are human, but He is very kind. Despite our frailty, He gives us nature’s changing seasons to assure us His plan never changes. The seasons are expected and unchanging. We may have to wait, but the seasons do come. He is always in control, and we can trust Him to guide us through the unexpected seasons as well. 

Spring follows winter, and the sky turns bright blue. The leaves are gone, and the grass is growing back vibrant green. The seeds from the dead summer flowers are sprouting again. Tiny shoots miraculously emerge from lifeless ground and grow into beautiful flowers, like fireworks everywhere you look.

Dead, now alive.

Summer is a wonderful celebration of life. The outdoors are crowded with people, excited to be outside after the long winter. The trees are lush, the plants tall, and the flowers sway in the wind as if they are saying He did it again! 

John 12:24 says, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

Jesus died for us. Our faith is based on the truth of His resurrection. 

Romans 6:4 says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

Unlike the apostles and other witnesses when He was here, we can’t see or touch Him. But we know He is coming.

Revelations 22:20 says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen, Come Lord Jesus.

We wait impatiently for the Grand Finale.