Fall is sweeping in and I just love it.
I know some of you are mourning the end of summer but when the leaves dress in their finest, splendor and the air looses its heaviness, I feel my heart begin to skip.
The afternoon light carries a depth of gold that’s fleeting,
And, I wonder how and why nature puts on its greatest display of beauty right before it dies?
Deitrich Bonhoeffer said— ‘When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.’
Jesus said it this way in Luke 9: 23
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Yet, dying to ourselves is not something we rush to do.
Maybe your saying, “Coming to Jesus is all about gaining things isn’t it?”
True we do gain so much! We gain eternal life, spiritual gifts, peace that passes understanding.
While what we gain is so much greater than what we lose, if just getting more is our motivation we are missing the beauty there is in letting go. Just as the leaves change from green to gold and red, we change when we walk with Jesus. With our eyes lifted up to His, allowing the gaze of his Spirit to pierce our souls, we surrender to his sanctifying work.
His Spirit says,” This beloved, it’s got to go.”
Or, “That, why are you clinging so tightly to that my child, it’s a cheap imitation of what I want to give you, release it.”
So we let go of the things shiny things we called beautiful. We take up our cross daily and die to the things that keep us from a closer walk with Christ.
Maybe the thing you are clinging to is, you ability to do it all perfectly, to somehow earn the salvation God wants to freely give you.
Either way beloved, God is calling us to lay it ALL down, to rely on Him and the sacrifice he made ONCE for ALL.
Let us no longer be satisfied with what is a mere shadow of all God has for us. Let’s exchange all the things taking up space in our affections for something so much better, all the riches in Christ Jesus.
And, I imagine there is beauty in our dying to the flesh.
I picture myself as a maple leaf turning a scarlet red and then releasing myself into his care.
And just like spring brings life after death, He makes all things new, even us if we let him.
Tara, this is beautiful! Perfect timing, as I sit outside pondering the seasons of my life and the splendor of God’s timing.