Happy Monday, everyone! This week, we’re taking a tour of Southern Autumn — talking about the changing of the seasons in our parts of the South.
Ah, autumn. That time of year when we snuggle into our tank tops, and shorts, and flip-flops. When the dogs lay panting on the afternoon porches, and the butterflies flit from flower to flower, and fishermen skim along the surfaces of nearby lakes in their bass boats, and little girls in swimsuits run through sprinklers in their front yards…
Hold it. Hold the phone! What is wrong with this picture? It’s the second week in November, and day after day for weeks now, it’s been over eighty degrees outside. Save for one quick cold snap last month, it hasn’t felt like autumn at all. While other parts of the country are facing a major winter storm that is far from welcome, in Texas the weather is rebellious in another way. Too much heat, not enough rain… for months, now.
Texans are accustomed to cantankerous weather, for the most part. There’s an old saying that’s printed on T-shirts and coffee mugs around here — If you don’t like the weather in Texas, just wait a minute, it’ll change.
But this year we’ve been waiting longer than ever, it seems. The cool air of fall and the coming of the rainy season should have happened weeks ago, but instead, endless summer stretches on and on, testing patience, testing faith in the natural order of things. Is winter ever coming? What if it never rains again? Why two summer droughts in a row, when other parts of the country are swamped with too much water?
There’s so much mystery. There are so many things we can’t explain and don’t understand.
And then, All of a sudden I look out my front window and find the trees ablaze with color. It has happened while I wasn’t watching. Overnight, perhaps. Or maybe I just haven’t been watching closely enough. Maybe I’ve been distracted. Too focused inward. Too busy waiting for autumn to come according my definition — cold mornings, kids wearing jackets to school, frost on grass, the first few leaves changing….
But life doesn’t happen by our definitions. Sometimes, life wakes us from our routines, from living by our expectations, from thinking we have it all figured out. Maybe, if nothing else, the unexpected causes us to take a fresh look at life and the world around us. To see the finest details, like every single leaf on a tree deciding to change color all at once for the first time ever.
Surely these are God’s reminders, I decide as I stand in my shorts and my flip-flops and watch the leaves drift toward the ground, gently kissed by what seems like a midsummer sun. We’re not the ones in control, and we’re not meant to be. It’s something to remember as we look out into a world in which Autumn seems troubled. Troubled by storms that rock the foundations of buildings and families. Troubled by neighbors trading angry words and over politics. Troubled by illnesses that invade just when life seemed perfect. Troubled by the changing seasons of life that bring new realities we don’t always want.
Yet somewhere among it all, amid the unexpected, a voice whispers in these sun-dried Texas leaves.
I’m still here, it promises. Be anxious about nothing, but pray about everything. I’ve spoken to the leaves, and see there? They’ve changed their colors, exactly as I planned.
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