From Lloyd D. Newell of “The Spoken Word”.
When the last day of summer herald the beginning of fall and the approach of winter, the leaves in many parts of the world change color. Beautiful and transitory, these colorful autumn leaves soon tumble to the ground, prompted by the coolness of shorter days of the capricious push of a passing breeze.
Like the trees, we will have autumn seasons in our lives. Life’s seasons bring changes, and often the leaves that seemed so much a part of us flutter off in the autumn wind or are stripped away by a storm. Promotions fall through, jobs are lost, friends move away, loved ones die—at times it seems we lose the very things in which we’ve invested the most work and love. It takes very little living to learn that few things in life are imperishable.
Sudden or anticipated, temporary or permanent, our losses in life are real and painful. At times, the winds of loneliness whistle around us and the cold chill of despair fills our hearts. But the trees teach us. Stripped by conditions beyond their control of every sign of the warm summer days, the trees wait.
They have learned to whether the winter, to wait for the thaw, and to watch for the warmth and sunshine that accompany each returning summer, knowing that new growth and fresh new blossoms are not possible until the seasonal circumstances remove the flowers of the past.
Yes, there will be autumn seasons in every life. Youth melts into old age, vigorous mental and physical capacities deteriorate, and financial stability can evaporate without warning; but the falling autumn leaves remind us that life is about growth, not accumulation. Eventually, we learn to look beyond what we have lost to recognize all that we have learned.
Like the trees, we cannot control everything that happens to us. Some aspects of our lives disappear, never to return. In other instances, our deprivations may be less permanent, and we are comforted by the knowledge that there are few matters of lasting consequence that God will not rectify in time.
When we learn to trust in spite of fear, to cope in spite of circumstance, to bravely continue in spite of losses or disappointments, the leaves of our lives become tinted with lovely hues of courage, perseverance, and hope. They become a beauty regardless of where the breezes may carry them during one of life’s autumn seasons. ~Lloyd D. Newell: This Day and Always (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1999), 22-23
