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As I drove north along a country road yesterday, I was struck by the wide variety of color in the leaves. No two trees were exactly alike. Each tree carried its own color and hue. Yet, taken together, they were blended into such an ordered pattern of beauty along the road and across the hills. Some trees were still as lush and green as they were in mid-July. Others had already shriveled into brown. But between the extremes of green and brown were placed swaths of gold, brilliant red, orange, and sun-softened yellow. Each tree was so different from the others, but together they became an ordered pattern of beauty. According to those who study these things, the color of leaves has nothing to do with the leaves themselves. It depends on the acidic quality and mineral content of the soil, the moisture, temperature, and the sunlight. It's not the fault or the achievement of a leaf that it has become the color it has. Leaves simply respond to what the tree gives them and then they make the most out of what they have received. What freedom to be who you really are with no excuses, to accept whatever has happened to you as something from which you can bring forth your color, your contribution to beauty and order. The simple gift of faith is trusting that what is, had to be. As I rode along watching the larger picture of beauty unfold before me, I sensed that there is a certain necessity in our lives that calls out to us to let our truest colors be shown. In so doing the larger design of God's order and beauty becomes achieved. I have no idea what the larger design of order and beauty for our lives might be, but the lesson of the leaves tells me that I am to take whatever has been given to me without blame. I think we are asked to hang on where we are long enough to allow some radiance to come forth, to let the truest colors of who we are be revealed. It is this acceptance and holding on that make all the difference in the larger landscape of life. --H.S. |