The Gift of Fall

 Good Morning Father......I saw the beginnings of fall this week!  

I saw the leaves blowing off the trees yesterday while driving down FM 3122 headed home and thought, "Oh my...here we go....it's almost here!".....and the kid in me could hardly contain herself from sitting up straighter in the Jeep, grasping the steering wheel harder and looking up....up.....to see if the trees are changing from red to orange to yellow yet.

And sometimes, while driving down the road, I turn the Jeep around 

and drive through it again just to experience the leaves hitting my windshield.  

It's almost like You give me Fall as an early Christmas gift.....and I can even see You grinning from ear to ear as You watch me unwrap Fall...all the while I'm squealing "Ooh....and Aww".....as if my eyes were seeing it for the very first time.

Each year....it is with first-time eyes.  I never grow tired of this.

I'm on "GO" for the first signs of red, orange and yellow......camera batteries are charged....lenses are packed and ready......I'm just waiting on You.  I know You are close when I see the fog on the lake each morning.....and I know how much pleasure it brings You, Father, to see me downright ridiculously featherbrained over the thought of laying in the middle of a country road with my camera aimed skyward towards You and watching the leaves falling all around me, begging them to land on my lens. 

Yes.....I will never look at Fall the same again...never look at YOU the same again.

The years I wasted driving through these colors...these textures...and never seeing them.  My old eyes never seeing them as the gifts they are.  Like a child opening a gift and tossing it aside to get to the next gift, to reach that hopefully "better" gift, I never appreciated that You hand-crafted each of these colorful leaves just for my enjoyment....just to see my eyes open wider...my heart skip a little faster....and the crazy internal screams that sound very much like those I make on the Texas Giant roller coaster at Six Flags.  What did I ever do to deserve this?

Fill my heart to capacity today Father......as I lay my tired old Summer eyes down, lift me up with brand new eyes that see everything You've made especially for my enjoyment.

There's truly no good reason for the leaves to turn red, orange and yellow....

there really isn't.....it was actually more work for You to do this.  

You could have just made them fall off the trees after Summer and go straight into Winter without ever passing through Fall, but You wanted us to experience the amazing colorful miracle of sending us through a Fall to prepare us for a Winter.

Like a parent who wants nothing but the best for their child....You created Fall to make us smile....to help us forget the ugliness in the world for a season....and oh how I love You for doing this for us!

In the midst of mass shootings.....hate crimes to Christians....stock market crashes....divorces....unspeakable crimes to children.....death, You gave us Fall to remind us You are still very present in this world full of ugliness.

So thank You, Father.  I am not going to darken this prayer with requests.....I am going to just sit on the floor of Your Throne Room thanking You for the gifts You have so lovingly given me.....as I unwrap each gift, each day of this Fall. 

I love You.

Amen.