Autumn's Gifts

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
I am grateful for the arrival of autumn. I can breathe again. I can snuggle against the chill again. I can hope again.

This summer was the hottest I remember. From mid-May to mid-September, stifling days of oppressive heat were the norm. With the merciless sun bearing down, trying to run, do yard work, or attempt most any outdoor activity ranged from unpleasant to impossible.

But now at last, fall has returned like a long, lost friend showing up on Facebook or knocking at the door. The sky is bluer, the air is crisper, the stars are brighter, and people are nicer.

The poets speak of the “rebirth of spring” but for me, autumn has always been the richest season. Maybe it has to do with all those years fall meant going back to school with fresh, white pages of notebook paper aching for new learning. Or maybe I love fall because as a pastor, autumn means the church is stirring back to life after the lean summer months. Soon, the world famous FBC Stewardship Banquet will be upon us (what are our resident comics cooking up this year?), the children’s Fall Festival will populate our parking lot with inflatable adventures, the harvest table of Thanksgiving will celebrate the abundance of creation, and the lighting of the first Advent candle will defy the approaching cold, grey darkness of winter.

Fall is also the season for a quick trip to the Georgia mountains to drink apple cider and see the explosion of color in the trees. It’s the time for state fairs and cotton candy and Ferris wheel rides. Fall is when the first fire is built in the hearth to knock back the evening chill and the rustic smell of smoke delights the nostrils. Fall is Friday night football, hotdogs and hot chocolate, cardigans and the fog of rising breath. Fall is when a freshly gathered pile of leaves invites would-be skydivers. Fall is when the little ones in the neighborhood dress up like clowns and ballerinas and come knocking at your door squealing, “Trick or treat!”

Yes, there’s much to love about the Fall, but it didn’t have to be this way. We could live (or rather die) on a planet like Mars where we’d turn into a popsicle in a microsecond, or be incinerated on Mercury or Venus. But by God’s grace, we inhabit a miracle planet called Earth where the changing of the seasons is a sign of God’s sustenance and care. As God promised Noah, so God promises us, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22).

Fall is but one of God’s many gracious and often unacknowledged gifts. The least we can do is take a deep breath, awaken to wonder, and whisper “Thank You!”