The weather is making a turn here. It is finally starting to get cold. I went out to day to do some shopping and I just loved the smell of fall leaves and crisp cool air. It was good to be out of the apartment for a bit. I always find it interesting looking at the trees and watching their change over the seasons. I am always looking for metaphors that point to our life in Christ. Right now the leaves have served their purpose to act as little solar powered factories that convert CO2 and water into sugar. Now that the days are short, the tree sheds them and goes into a period of restfulness, while it prepares itself for the next period of growth.
Our lives are like that. We have times when we are taking in the Word; being fed, then there are times of quite reflection where we prepare ourselves for the next growth period. I guess that is the point of our lives in Christ, or one of them, in that we are to grow. We are to grow into people that more and more each year, resemble Him. The more a try grows the more critters it can provide a home for. The more we grow into Christ the more we can minister to the needs of others. But there will be seasons for each. Solomon states in Ecclesiastes that there is a time and season for everything.
I have also noticed that all these seasons produce an abundance of leaves that to us humans seem a mess, but in God’s plan provide for the making of good soil. We busily carry them away as garbage, but they would be better suited to being converted into compost for gardens. Sometimes we look at the results of our life and think it is all wasteful, but then maybe if we looked a little closer we could offer our cast offs to someone who could use them.
As members of Christ’s body, we are here to do a number of things. We are called to help one another, and we are called to reach out to a hurting and dying world. I am just so glad that God is at work in me making me better equipped each year. Transforming me bit by bit so that I look more and more like Him. Sometimes my life is quite fruitful, other times is seems barren and dry. But no matter what it seems like, Christ is at work in me and through me by his Word and His Holy Spirit. I am so thankful that it is not all up to me. I cannot change myself. I do not have in and of myself to become all that Christ would have me be, but I do know that He is faithful and he will complete the work he has begun in me.
I pray that whatever season of life that you are in that you would look to Him who has redeemed you and is your strength and your hope.
To God be the glory, for ever and ever, Amen!
In Him,
Alan
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