The sun was exceptionally bright this morning.  We have had some rain, which seems to make all the foliage look clean.  I like that.  As the fall in temperature rings in the beautiful season of autumn, I observed the beginning of that season in the trees.  It is a wonderful time of year.

When I was young I didn't like the fall of the year that much.  It meant going back to school and other drudgeries.  Coming out of the lazy days of summer into the change of, not only colors, but also clothes to a youth is somewhat traumatic.  I liked the spring of the year "when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love and beauty".  The newness of life in all nature is something with which we can all identify.  We love to see the new leaves and grass.  The young saplings trying to gain an extra leaf or two in order to look more like their tall overshadowing parents is marvelous to behold.  

Long ago I had the idea that God gave us the seasons because He knew we would require variety in our lives, but since that time I have learned that they are for our sustenance and replenishment of the earth. " While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."  (Gen. 8:22) It may appear to some that this scripture doesn't include spring and autumn, but we know that 'seedtime and harvest' tell of spring and fall; as does the former and latter rains. (see Hosea 6:3 & Joel 2:23)

It is said by those who know, that the colors of the leaves on the trees in the fall are the leaves true color.  The reason they are green in the spring and summer is because of the direct rays of sunlight upon them causing the color of chlorophyll (Photosynthesis).  In the fall the sun is at such a severe slant toward the earth that the rays are not severely direct; thus the process that causes the green color doesn't happen.  The lack of direct sun also causes the sap to run down the tree.  When this happens the trees release the leaves and they fall to the earth.  They lie there waiting for the process to occur whereby they become the nourishment to the new life in the spring.  All this was set up by our great God that made heaven and earth: Isaiah 6:13"But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a tall tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof."

As I got older, the fall of the year began to be more and more beautiful to me.  This season tells of a portion of our life that is toward the end of our days on earth.  When I was young and my mind and heart were on things of this earth, I enjoyed the spring more.  Now, as I have become older, my heart and mind seem to be more grounded and truer in thought and practice, much like the true colors of the tree leaves.  By years of experience we can see more clearly what and who we are.  We realize that because of sin this body cannot endure and we go the way of all men:  Isaiah 64:6 "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."  How wonderful it is to realize and understand that our God will not leave us as the leaves upon the ground, spiritually useless and purposeless.  He has given us to know that like the newness of spring, these corroding bodies shall rise in the springtime of eternity and know the fullness of the purpose of our great and Almighty God.  Let God above alone be praised, 'tis by His power we all are raised.

Your Brother in Christ, I hope, Elder Carl Arnold