Autumn Speaks

(ROCKWALL/HEATH, TX – Nov. 11, 2015) If you were a flower, what kind of flower would you be? A pastor’s wife posed the woman’s retreat-type question to our group. (I’ve assumed that men ask different ones).

My own answer sprang up immediately: a chrysanthemum, because it’s a late-bloomer. I hoped to be a late-bloomer, since my life seemed unremarkable in those years of pursuing a double major in carpool and household duties.

That answer served to expose my desire to amount to something, along with some pride at the root of this desire. Yet God often gives us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4*). Jesus offers a safe suggestion though, telling us to seek thekingdomofGodabove all other things we seek (Matthew 6:33). Doing this puts our desires in good order and causes us to prune or weed them as needed.

God fulfills his rich promises for those who love him. The Apostle Paul said that, in Christ, “all the promises of God find their Yes,” (2 Corinthians 1:20). This encourages us to watch for the rain cloud while we suffer through a drought. We should look for the swell of chrysanthemum buds. Good things are in the works for those who wait on the Lord.

Though certain seasons of life may not deliver the expected goods, God does not forget us when we do not forget him. When the wait is long, we languish like stringy petunias and brown-tipped day lilies at summer’s end. But the Master Gardner has a plan. Autumn surely comes.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time . . . . “(Ecclesiastes 3:11). And when the time arrives, we will reap a harvest that blesses our souls like the colors of a brilliant fall day. Meanwhile, God gives us times of refreshing—like autumn, which speaks of his glory.

But eventually, winter comes. The joys of fulfilled desires will fade under the effects of aging or illness. Most of our longings will diminish or cease; but we’ll retain at least one: the desire for a whole new life, a heavenly one (Hebrews 11:16).

We will await our Savior, “the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body . . . .” (Philippians 3:20-21).