Faithfall

"As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease." (Genesis 8:22)

Ah, the lazy days of summer are about ready to go into winter hibernation but not without the transition of Fall. I don't know how others sense it but its in the air for me. I think botanists call it "tree mold" but I prefer to call it my favorite time of the year (allergies not included). 

Warm days. Cool nights. Crickets. Cicadas (how they get that loud I'll never understand). Changing of the leaves to their true colors. Mums. Fried pumpkin donuts with cinnamon glazed frosting (definition of heaven). Pumpkin milk shakes. Pumpkin cereal. Pumpkin bread. Pumpkin...enough with the pumpkin flavors. Oh...and pumpkin pie (reserved for Thanksgiving). And as a farmer...the harvest. The culmination of your work and the visible result of the grace and mercy of God. 

In normal ministry time, this would be the most stressful time of the year, with the exception of December. All the ministries would be in full operation. The church doors would have been open to someone almost every night of the week. I would have already had meeting exhaustion by now. But alas, the halls are still quiet. The building is dark most nights. The young voices screaming with delight as they play in Beatrice Hall are silent. It feels like we have been robbed of the harvest as we stare at a barren, empty field. Not true, of course. The apples are still on the trees. They are just in backyards and in other orchards. Seeds we planted that have borne fruit. We just have to look a little harder for them. We have to go get them rather than they come to us. 

This is interesting to me because Fall brings the sense that things are not beginning, but things are coming to a close. Sometimes that is a good thing. Sometimes things have to close, to die, in order to be reborn. Everything has its season. It has been the blessing of this epidemic. Rebirth. New ideas. Creative ministry. Better congregational care. Intentional care. Intentional ministry. Evaluation. Introspection. Forced change. 

Change. I think this is part of what God was trying to communicate to Noah after the devastating flood. Change was what God was promising. Change was the hope. Change was/is meant to be a blessing. 

As long as this earth endures, God will faithfully bring forth the seasons and with it change. It is a reminder that we truly are blessed that God does not leave things the way they are.

He, indeed, is a faithfall God.