Septembers last

A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Matthew 7:18-20

We closed all the windows last night as the chill set in. No denying it, the fall is here. Not winter yet, but the real signs of a change in seasons is upon us. The summer is over and though I still am wearing summer clothes, and still haven't really accepted it, fall is here. I love the fall. Apples and cider and all things crisps and comforting. The air revives me, the colors of turning trees inspire me and it is a season that brings me joy. But letting summer go completely is always a problem. Tucking life inside for the winter is always a little sad. So there's this confused time, for just a bit, when wanting summer to stay and wanting the beauty of fall presence collide and I am torn - as if I could stop the change of seasons.

It is often so in our lives. When things change, when children grow, the world we knew changes its leaves, we are often torn for a while, caught between what was and what is to come. We can linger there too long and not realize the gifts that are to come. We can sit on the steps and defy the changes -for a while. We can try to bear summer fruit, try to be young again, try to be what has passed. And lingering for a while is normal. God invites us to live into the changes, whatever they be and know that abundance is as possible in the future as it was in the past. God changes not, though we wax and wane.

Just for today I want to delight with the world as it changes, I want to dance with the turning of life. I ask God to give me joy in this season, so that I might bear fruit worthy of the love I have been given.