It is FALL beautiful FALL – nature changes – the weather changes, the colors change, — but change means something must go. Trees that were once lush and green then orange and red are becoming bare leaving only the branches. The barrenness may seem sad, but it is a sign of things to come after letting go.
Remarkably, after losing their beautiful vibrant leaves, the branches still reach out and up as if they are determined to go on. The trees still stand strong with regal beauty and strength in their bare limbs.
This is an analogy of what Jesus does in our lives as we go through all manner of seasons. There are seasons of hardships, seasons of health challenges, seasons of hurtful relationships, grief, and financial challenges. We have seasons that are light and bright and seasons of darkness. The Lord uses different seasons to teach us and grow us and to let us know there is strength in our branches with Him. In John 15:5, He tells us, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” He wants to cultivate us and take us to new levels.
As we continue in our Christian walk with Jesus, we must let go sometimes like the trees with their leaves. The weight can become too heavy for us to carry on. In our various seasons of life, we learn to surrender in order to become more like Him and to increase our faith in Him.
God created the seasons to change. He does not expect us to look at the last season as the next one. I Peter 2: 2 says, “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you grow in respect to salvation.” I Corinthians 13: 11 “When I was a child , I used to speak like a child , think like a child, reason like a child: when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”
As we let go of the parts of us that are holding us back, God continues to hold us up like the tree and its branches. In observing the beautiful leaves, consider that leaves feel stress, just like we do. Sometimes they are traumatized by harsh weather conditions yet leaves are flexible and resilient. Even though they are fragile, they can hang on in strong winds. It would behoove us to be flexible and fluid as we respond to turmoil. Leaves know what’s good for them. As humans, we often lean toward things that are harmful to us, but leaves know what is good for them and gravitate to those things. They know that the sun is good for them so they lean toward the sun. We can learn a lesson from them and lean toward those things that are nurturing in our lives.
Consider the fact that when a leaf changes colors in the fall, the vibrant colors had been in the leaf all along. In the same way, when we are in Christ Jesus, we have everything in us to make it. 2 Peter 1:3 tells us, “by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Leaves know when it’s time to go. This is hard for us to do. We tend to have difficulty in times of transition and cling to situations that have proven to be detrimental to us. But the Lord tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:9,10, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
In this beautiful season, let us let go and let God transform us.