My Dear Friend Autumn Has Returned


My dear friend Autumn has returned. She brought her cooler temps with her, along with her wonderful fragrances and flavors. I've heard it said that Fall is a second Spring where every leaf is a flower.
Perhaps your Summer was hard. Work was difficult, decisions taxing, and relationships strained. There's a promise found in Psalm 125 that I hope will encourage you.

"Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them." Psalm 125:5-6.

I grew up in "the sticks." Most folks where I live don't know what the sticks are like. We weren't farmers, but there were farms all around us. My brothers, friends, and I would pick up work in the Fall loading bales of hay and picking vegetables. Harvest time is joyous for the Farmer. The sweat and backbreaking work of Summer is over, and now he gets to reap what he has sown. The Scriptural promise of sowing and reaping assures us that this will be our experience in life as well. Seasons of sowing come, and can be trying. Yet, harvest comes.

If you feel like the times you chose to do what was right and good in the heat of the summer of life was in vain be assured it was not. A trip to the orchard, fresh corn on the cob, pumpkins everywhere, and so many other fruits and vegetables in abundance remind us that harvest time comes. Your mourning will turn to dancing, and songs of joy will be yours. So put on a hoodie, grab a pumpkin muffin, and know that your labor is never in vain.

Welcome back Autumn. I know everyone doesn't enjoy your cool crisp air as I do, but you remind us that seasons change and harvest comes.

Following the Son,

James A Williams

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