October 2023

Dear Friends –

Brilliant autumn colors have set my mountain community ablaze with spectacular vistas through the pine trees, and with every bend in the road.  The variety of colorful maple trees will stop you in your tracks humbly begging for a compliment, and you spontaneously offer one up, for a breathtaking reaction to such beauty cannot be contained.  An unusually long hot summer has produced a bumper crop of produce for local gardeners, something not easily achieved in the mountains that can bring a late spring and early frost resulting in a very small growing season.  So, we die-hard growers stick with the crops we know will survive these conditions, and this year the fruit trees are heavily ladened while the veggie plants got to ripen before the first frost… what a magnificent harvest this year!  Each season has its own beauty, but somehow autumn surpasses them all; spring has the pure starkness of new birth, summer brings the labor of maintaining growth, thus, autumn culminates in reward to one’s efforts, and of course, we all want a magnificent harvest that will fill the larder to get us through the cold unproductive winter.  Just so are the seasons of our human lives and endeavors: new birth, cultivating growth, and reaping the rewards to provide for a comfortable period of retirement.  God has planned it all out so beautifully, hasn’t He… the natural and supernatural do complement each other!

Nature may be very distinct with exact periods and rhythms for plant growth, however in human life new birth or death can occur in any season of our life.  Just when a career path seems secure, downsizing occurs and a resulting choice must be made for a new start.  Injury or illness may stop our growth, and a period of dormancy is established for rebirth.  Whatever changes that may occur to disrupt human plans, how fortunate we Christians are to have our Heavenly Father to call on for assistance.  Just like the gardener that can stake up a young flimsy tree trunk for protection against the buffeting winds, or fertilize a struggling plant in poor soil, so can and will Almighty God come to our assistance to provide whatever remedy we need.  There was a time when Jesus came upon Peter in his boat, and He told him to: “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.  Peter replied, Master we have worked hard all night without catching anything.  But because You say so, I will let down the nets.  When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to tear.”  (Luke 5:4-6)  One of the main points of that occurrence we should hold on to is that when we fail at a task, and we will fail, we should always rely on God to bring greater results than we could ever accomplish alone.  His love for us is so great, He does not want to leave us in failure, but rather desires to aid in our success. So, when He reaches out His hand to us as He did with Peter, grab hold!

The Master Gardener created a Paradise for Adam and Eve but their disobedience ended that for them and they were banished.  That Garden of Eden was perfection that met mankind’s every need because GOD’S ORIGINAL INTENTION WAS BEAUTIFUL EXISTENCE FOR HIS CREATION, not stingy sterile domesticity.  He still strives to do any and everything possible to make life comfortable for His favored obedient children, especially when we acknowledge and praise the beautiful natural and supernatural wonders of His love!