Fall

I enjoy the early fall in this part of the country. Crisp clear mornings, breezy days, foliage beginning to turn. We still can have some hot afternoons and thunderstorms in the evening, but for the most part the harshest heat of summer is over. I like it, too, because winter has not yet set in -- though we hear of snow storms and colder weather in other parts of the nation already. It's the season of high school and college football, the season of MLB playoffs and the World Series.

When the autumn leaves begin to fall in my yard, I admit I'm less enamored. It's a big job to keep them raked and bagged because there are lots of trees in our area. Even so, it's still invigorating to be outdoors in this season.

The Lord Jesus once commented that we are pretty good at watching the seasons, even predicting the weather to a certain degree, but we may not notice the "signs of the times." Some of these "signs" are discouraging today -- a struggling economy, seemingly endless conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, nuclear threats in North Korea and Iran, pandemics of many kinds, and so on. But it may be that these are not the "signs" the Lord would have us notice. Perhaps he is reminding us that, as crops often come to maturity in the fall of the year, it is also a spiritual time of harvest. The fields, he said, are ripe. But we have to lift up our eyes to notice.