The leaves are still wet from yesterday’s rain. Each leaf is so different from the one next to it. Even when you pick up two leaves that are both deep red with a rusty brown spreading out from the veins, each one is different from the other. What a wonderful image of the infinity of God.
And God surprises us in the way the leaves lay on the grass, the walkways, and the roads. As the sun’s rays come upon them, they glisten, almost blinding us. They’re soft and supple when you first touch them but as they dry out they’ll become brittle, much the same way we become when we become dry, apart from the softness of community.
It’s getting colder now and soon the limbs will be bare, but within the tree is the promise of the spring to come. In this autumn, may we feel the wonder of God’s world about us in the swirling leaves about us and work to protect it from the ravages of those who cannot see beyond their greed.
Prayer for the Day
Maker and Sustainer, we thank you for the infinitude of life:
From the shells of tiny whelks to the whale in the sea;
Spirit of Creation, you speak to us through the beauty we see around us:
As the leaves turn and are reflected through the sunlight,
So may we reflect your love in communities near and far.
Hold us in your heart, O God, as we search to do your will.
In the name of him who came to show us how to search,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Only with a leaf
Can I talk to the forest.
- Visar Zhiti, Albanian poet, from The Condemned Apple: selected Poetry
In the fall of leaves, In the hustle of breeze, In the curve of streams,
I foresee, Nature keeps more concealed, Than it lets us peep.
- Jasleen Kaur Gumber, poet from Ginger and Honey
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of God’s hand
And marked of the heavens with a span,
Enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure,
And weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?
Who has directed the spirit of the Lord or as counselor has instructed God?
Isaiah 40: 12-13