After an enforced week indoors recently, I emerged to find that, all of a sudden, the trees were clothed in their glorious autumnal colours. The rich reds, oranges and golds are a spectacular reminder of God’s creativity, but have you ever wondered why the leaves change colour?
Those gorgeous tones were there all along, masked by the green, which begins to break down as the weather cools and the leaves receive less sunlight. It’s not that they are changing colour, so much as revealing their true colours.
This is a good reminder for us as Christians that we can find ourselves in difficult seasons, but maybe this is when our true colours show.
In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul talks about the many trials he and his companions have had to go through as they carry the treasure that is the Gospel of Christ:
‘But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.‘
When the bitter winds bite and the frost cracks, when the night comes earlier and lingers longer, it’s easy to get discouraged and wonder what God is doing in our lives. But this passage reminds us that our weakness is precisely what displays God’s power. We are never forsaken, and the same God who determines precisely when every single leaf will fall – the new buds already in place for next Spring – is fully in control of our lives too.
Sarah Dodd, Author and Schools Worker
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