It’s fall! I can feel it!
The leaves are just starting to turn glorious colors and fall to the ground. I raked for the first time in I have no idea how many years! I finally have a house with a yard and trees that I will gladly clean up after. Though it’s still warm here during the day, the evenings and mornings are chilly now, perfect for sweats, coffee and a little writing. I’m baking things that smell like cinnamon and pumpkin – you know, the smells that so wonderfully capture the very essence of fall.
Yesterday, we decided to celebrate fall at the nursing home, too. Our friends were each given a sheet to draw and put fall stickers on. It was fun to watch what each of them did (or didn’t do) with their stickers. Some were random. Some were very precise. One lady put the sticker on her chest! For nearly all of the residents, my friend Anne and I drew simple trees for them and helped them attach leaves, squirrels and owls to the branches. This was as much as they could do.
But two of the residents took the project to a whole new level. Both of them are artistic and put my lame attempt at drawing to shame. I was amazed as I looked at each of their pictures. At 101 years old, one of them drew a perfect, bare-branched fall tree. She added the fine tuning of shading and details. The other woman put not only a tree on her picture, but exquisite butterflies flying above the branches.
I knew what I had to do. I turned to both of them and asked, “Would the two of you draw a picture for me to take home and frame?” You’d have thought I had asked them if I could hang their pictures in the Smithsonian! They were excited to share their drawing gifts with me.
So one of them drew a naked tree, leaf-less branches reaching in the air. Beautiful in its simplicity. The other added her touch with more of her lovely butterflies gracing the air above the seemingly lifeless tree.
And it occurred to me what an awesome analogy was right here in front of my eyes:
There are times when life has its way with us and we’re left feeling like our “branches” are empty and dry. The color that once graced our limbs has fallen at our feet and we’re left with something brown and lifeless. These are the seasons when it would be so easy to look at our surroundings and circumstances and lose hope. We long for something lovely to come along and remind us that beauty still exists.
And then it happens. Something unlikely. Like a butterfly in autumn. Glimpses of life in the middle of lifelessness sent by the Father who oversees all seasons. He gives us something to remind us of His love. To bring us a little warmth in the middle of a cold spell. Apricity, as my daughter Janay would say. The warmth of the sun in winter.
I love my new piece of artwork. I’m going to frame it and put it on a wall in a place I will see it often. To remind me of my geriatric friends. To remind me that every season is just that – a season. An opportunity to see light in the dark and beauty in the ashes. And to watch God show up in the most unlikely “unseasonal” ways…
Ecclesiastes 3:11 – He has made everything beautiful in its time.
