FALL'S FINERY

     “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.    LUKE 12:27
 

     A small wooded area behind my home lies sleepily waiting behind a wooden gate. The gate, much like Alice’s magical mirror provides an egress to another world or dimension in gardening and Godening.  Autumn in my woods find leaves spread out on the forest floor like colors spilled from God’s own palette.  The leaves, thrown together by evening winds, comingle, weaving a tapestry of colors drying to a crackling crisp by the moisture starved fall air, quietly covering previous years deposits insulating the summer warmed soils from the early morning attacks of Jack Frost.

     Some observers of this repeating fall magic might not care to know that the brilliance of fall has been hidden in the leaves by the abundance of green chlorophyll busily producing food and energy from sunlight and water during the long preceding days of summer.  As days shorten and the winds cool, the life-giving cycle of photosynthesis diminishes and the colors of fall break out from behind the screen of their big green brothers. Their autumnal display of forest hues tumbles from the north and high places to the mixed hardwood forests of the southern deltas and valleys.
     Christians, including me, often pray for God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit to come into their lives, to enter into their presence or to attend to their utterances.  Do we not understand that they are already there? “Lo, I am with you, always.” “If you will be my people and ... I will be your God.” “. . . “and the Holy Spirit descended on them as tongues of flame.”
     Behold the scarlet leaf of fall and know that the creator God who designed its beauty and mystery also designed each of us.  Yet in us, whom He created, God fashioned a seed, a soul, which needs his Son-light, his Living Water and his vineyard care.  We like the leaves of the forest may need a season of rest or a period of solitude, a time to recharge our batteries but we must never forget that we are in His presence and He is in our very lives.

       “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” GALATIANS 2:20

 Fall Planting Notes: When planting mums in the fall, select a sunny, well-drained location and insure their survival by water in thoroughly and continually when required as well as mulching before heavy freezes with   4-6 inches of good organic mulch.