by Doc Adkins
It’s officially autumn! On certain recent days it seemed like winter but rest assured it is autumn. I remember the bold autumns of my childhood in Hinton. That smell of smoke coming from the chimney. A well thought through pantry of all kinds of stuff canned from the garden. Fall apples in a bushel basket on the back porch for anyone to partake when they entered the screen door on their way into the kitchen entry of the farm house.
I recall the bright summer sunshine giving way to a deeper golden glow that casted a rich light over everything. The soft summer breeze picked up a cool edge that rattles across the pavement with the fallen leaves.
I once heard that a tree shows its true colors only once photosynthesis has stopped and the green of the chlorophyll gives way to the gold or crimson or rustic specific to its variety. I find that so interesting–a tree spends most of the year growing and storing energy and only once it begins to rest can you see its “true colors.”
People are often described as being in a particular ‘season of life.’ If there are parallels, our prime years would be autumn, right? At about the point we’ve passed the summer season of youth, we’ve reached the place where we can live off the wisdom we’ve gained through our experiences. We aren’t as worried with impressing anyone, even though we’ve finally developed some of our most impressive characteristics–a lack of self-consciousness, a new self-confidence, wisdom that overcomes insecurity, grace to let others make the mistakes we’ve already learned from–just to name a few.
I’m not as old as I look, (at least, that’s what my birth certificate says, but I so enjoy playing the Geezer part of life. And, I do look forward to my check in a few years). Part of me would love to look in the mirror and see unlined skin and hair. And what IS left of it, is masked by the ever-increasing silver. At the same time, I’m glad that I’m not the person I was in the ‘summer’ of my earlier years.
In our youth-obsessed culture it’s easy to overlook the value of growing and maturing. But just like trees grow and mature and produce fruit at the right time, hopefully, so do we.
The Bible puts it this way, Psalm 1:1-3
“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
But whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers”.
Wherever you may fall on the season of life’s spectrum, take time to appreciate what God has done so far and anticipate what He has ahead.