Autumn is truly my favorite season!
(winter as a close second favorite…)
The heart of God is everywhere you look during this season!
Everyone loves the spring!
It’s when everything that winter kept inside, starts to bloom.
We love to see things bloom, so spring is just a delightful example of what we want to see, even in our own lives!
However, I think there is an unmatched beauty in a season where everything is falling apart, just so it can be prepared for another season!
There is something so special about creation appearing as though it has died, yet under the surface, it is being renewed!
It helps me to see situations in my own life, in the same way.
When everything falls apart and once beautiful aspects of my life now appear dead… it’s amazing to see that they haven’t really died; but they are in the process of becoming better than they were before!
As spring cannot bloom without the season of fall, so my life cannot bloom purposefully without first… a fall.
Let’s take a look at the
Best Autumn Bible story;
As it helps us to see the beauty and intention behind the Fall season!
The story is in
This religious ruler sees something he loves dying…
When he gets to Jesus, he falls to the ground and begs Jesus to keep this season from ending.
We don’t get to see Jesus respond to Jairus’ plead before we meet another desperate person in the midst of the multitude.
Jesus addressed first, the one who got close enough to reach out and touch His garment.
The woman who was healed must have felt so noticed and seen, in that moment…
While Jairus must have felt as though Jesus disregarded his desperate cry.
His daughter was dying!
He did not want to see the life of his child start to wither away like an autumn leaf on the dry grass.
Before he could get another plea out of his mouth, someone came to give him news.
His child has died…
The springtime he saw in the eyes of his twelve-year-old daughter… in what seemed like an instant, became the coldest season of his life.
Without warning…
Without reason…
I can imagine that Jairus was upset that Jesus disregarded his plea for his daughter’s healing for the sake of healing another.
I have felt the same…
I’ve cried out to God before and begged for the winter in my life to end, and then I look at Instagram to see that everyone else is in the middle of their summer season.
Where is my healing?
Why did the good season that I was in, have to die?
Why did Jesus let it die?
Jairus was told, not to bother Jesus now because his daughter was already dead.
Jairus didn’t get to respond to this because Jesus interrupted and reminded him of something that we all should remember while in a hard season of life.
“Don’t be afraid…
Only believe, and she will be made well.”
In that suffocating crowd of people, Jesus didn’t disregard Jairus!
Jesus heard every word!
He didn’t put someone else’s season before Jairus’ season…
He knew exactly when to address both of their seasons.
That woman has been in a twelve year winter and Jesus brought spring to her heart; while Jairus suddenly crashed into what seemed like a winter season.
Jesus comes to, what everyone can see is, a death, and He says…
Though, it looks like death on the outside, it’s really not what it seems!
What seems lifeless on the surface is actually just renewing underneath!
In Luke 8:52 NKJV,
“Now all wept and mourned for her; but He said, “Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping.””
Jesus told them not to mourn because she was not dead, she was sleeping!
Sleep is when our bodies get renewed and restored; similarly to how trees get renewed during the cold seasons.
During autumn, flower petals and leaves start falling and all trees and plants start appearing as though they are dead.
They are barren and dry.
What used to be full of color and life…
Is now lifeless and grey.
However, stored inside the core of that tree and root of that plant, is all the nutrients that will keep the plant alive and able to survive the bitter weather that is to come.
The plant didn’t die from the cold weather, it was preparing for it and concentrating it’s strength to survive the weather.
This helps them endure the winter and bloom well in the spring!
This is crucial in the fall!
If this season didn’t exist, the root of the plant wouldn’t survive.
Jesus shows us that this girl did fall into an autumn season of life that brought snow into the heart of her father.
But it was not over!
Under the surface she was more alive than ever!
Jesus knew she was not dead before he addressed Jairus!
He wasn’t disregarding Jairus’ cry!
He just wasn’t addressing the situation as death because Jesus knew it was just a season of sleep.
That’s why we are panicking over our ice cold seasons.
They look like the end to us, but not to God!
God knows it’s a season of autumn…
A season of sleep.
A season for renewal and regrowth to strengthen us for the weather ahead and prepare us to eventually bloom!
This story reminds me that even the coldest and most lifeless, purposeless and hopeless seasons of my life, are NOT the end!
It’s just a fall season…
That turns into a winter season…
Which prepares the way for a purposeful spring season, unlike anything I could have imagined before!
There is still life and purpose even if the season looks dead!
I just LOVE autumn!
It’s a reminder that life is being renewed and strengthened inside, while the outside may look lifeless.
No season is without purpose!
Each season is necessary for survival, year by year.
Nothing is wasted in the autumn season!
All of creation is preparing to endure, whatever comes it’s way!
How can you miss the heart of God, written all over autumn?
Again,
This is why Autumn is my favorite season!
(Also, pumpkin spice coffee, warm sweaters and beautiful overcast skies…)
So, whether you are currently reading this in the fall months, or if you’re just facing a fall in your personal life…
Look at the heart of God in this season and know that with God, even the most lifeless season is not the end…
It’s the start of a brand new beginning!
Photo by Monstera
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
