Autumn Invitation

Dear Autumn,

Your arrival brings mixed feelings for me every year. You're a busy time of life for our little family - days mixed with lots of fun and lots of responsibility, then ending with very tired minds and bodies. The falling temperature is certainly welcomed, but the falling leaves signal the beginning of the death of some very beautiful things that are dear to me. However, you bring new colors of your own to replace the ones that are fading away, and offer many gifts for the harvest from things that have been tended to carefully throughout the hot summer months.

This is a time of thanksgiving, a time for pause to remember what God has blessed us with during the days past. We have certainly been given much! It's also a time to prepare for the coming winter days, to brace for the coldness and the fading daylight that sends us indoors and inspires mulled cider and heavy coats.

May we have the grace to accept the coming changes, and to be thankful for every day's measure of blessings. May we have strength to walk forward as we begin to watch once-beautiful things fade and fall to the ground. We know that every season has its purpose, and that God gives us only what is best, even when your changing winds begin to make things around us seem a little colder.

Thank you for the ways in which you teach us the about the character of God and His purpose for our lives. We are looking forward to your arrival!