the King of Autumn

Fall is officially here in Northern California. There is a distinct chill in the air, the evening breeze has a different feel, almost ominous, and the days seem compact and more fleeting than ever. The sky before the day ends is a milky sheet of cloud stretched out above everything, but the sunsets this time of year are so brilliant and colorful it’s like time stands still for a moment. These months at the end of the calendar year are taken captive by a landscape that reminds us that everything around us is breathing and alive, if only preparing for a deep sleep.

There’s something so beautiful in the seasons changing, nature is doing her slow dance in shades of olive green and burnt red and gold. I think every night since October began, I’ve seen the birds in their neat little rows of flight, with their sudden and sharp changes of direction, all in unison. It’s like everything is crying out in beauty with a collective song of love and obedience that makes my heart skip a beat; I just want to be part of the music.

I think we’re searching for something beautiful. I think we all just want to matter to someone or something bigger than ourselves – the masses, legends, weaved into the great story of the world. But all the while, we matter to the great Someone whose divine passion is setting everything in motion. He is standing on the shores of our being, looking through to the soul bare before Him; He sees beyond the curse of rebellion and He’s loving us there.

We’ve become so formulaic and cerebral about God. But we were created to be lovers. And love is poetry: the heart swells and we’re short of breath and tears well up and everything inside us cries out. And when we lay down our pride and fall to our knees we know that in all our searching and sifting through, we’ve never found anything in all the world like the love of the Creator.

It’s been a year since I started this blog and I am so grateful to have this place as an offering to the King of Autumn, with his Crown of leaves falling and birds making patterns in the sky and bright pinks and purples painting the horizon and the color of cinnamon and shining gold and this deep love that we can’t deny.