Clinging Leaves

I was taking a walk the other day, the only decent day we've had in awhile, and I was doing something that is very novel for me; I was walking in silence!  Anyone who knows me will understand why I consider that to be a novel experience.  Ever since I can remember I have required my world to be flooded with sound. I have avoided the silence.  Whether it's a TV turned on, but unwatched, or the background thrum of music...I have shunned the stillness. Now I have theories as to why I am that way, but that's for another blog.  My point is that in the “music-less” void I listened to the furious bustle of the wind, the restless rustling of the fallen leaves, the frenzied barking of the dogs I passed and the occasional intrusion of a car. 

As I walked through the field leading up to my office; in the midst of nature's symphony, void of man-made commotion, I started to pay closer attention to the vista surrounding me.  The field had been harvested of its crop.  The woods surrounding me were layered with the variegated colors of fall.  Blowing leaves were everywhere and the sky was thick with the harbingers of winter.  I started paying closer attention to the trees.  The peak of the season has crested and we are now on the downward spiral towards winter.  Many of the trees have already dropped their clothing and embraced the short death of winter.  But what my eyes were drawn to were the few trees with shreds of clinging leaves.  Sometimes they were clustered at the top, sometimes tenaciously grasping to one branch, and I recalled that I have sometimes seen leaves that are still clinging in the midst of winter. 

Why?  What did these leaves have that gave them the strength to hold on while all the others had long since blown away?   God, in his infinite creativity, used his creation to demonstrate many spiritual truths.  I was curious to know if there was an applicable explanation for this phenomenon.

"Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has showed it unto them.  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:" (Romans 1:19-20)

The primary idea crossing my mind was that the closer you are to God...the harder it is to be shaken.   I let the idea rest in the back of my brain, and a few days have passed.  This evening I was out running with my puppy.  As I stole a moment of rest and gasped for some air, I started looking at all the trees.  I'm always sad to see the first entirely bare trees; not because I'm sorry that summer is gone, I'm sad to see the first signs that the splendors of fall are soon to pass.  I noted a few bare trees and again I noted the handful of clinging leaves. 

That decided me on the purpose for this blog; God has a harvest.  (See the parable of the tares among the Wheat; Matthew 13:24-30)  In the end all will be judged, we will either be a weed to be thrown into the fire and consumed or we will be gathered up as the "fruit of the harvest".  A harvest must happen at an assigned time once the fruit has ripened.  If a farmer waits too long to gather in his crop he will lose some of his harvest.  If something was to happen and the crop wasn't harvested...even the plumpest fruit, the firmest corn or the ripest grape would spoil and rot in the field.  The harvest must be gathered or all will be lost and the labor spent in vain.

For the tree, every leaf will be shaken.  Some will hold out the longest, usually those that are closest to their life source, but in the end even they will fall during the winds of adversity and the rain of falls darkest hours.  It is the same in Christ; we are the precious fruit that God desires to harvest.  If he waits too long to gather us home, even those closest could be lost.

"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." (Matthew 24:21-24) 

"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.  Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.  Be you also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draws nigh."  (James 5:7-8)

The seasons come every year to give man a way to tell time, to know and understand where we are in life.  Fall comes every year and the death of winter follows.  But soon the joy of rebirth comes on the wings of spring and life begins to bud anew.  As winter follows fall and spring follows winter, there will also come the harvest time of God's kingdom.  It will not wait for man to pursue his dreams and schemes.  It will come when we least expect it, while we sleep, while we play, while we close our eyes in a complacent blink.  It will come and it will pass.  I want to be vigilant and always aware of the times and seasons.  I want to be one of those clinging leaves, close to the husbandman, bountiful fruit safely plucked in the fullness of time. 

God Bless
Amy Charissa Warren