Fall and the Maples of the Four-States

It is fall in Ozarklandia. Surely, this must be one of the most wonderful places in the world to be during the fall.

In Carthage, Missouri, the Maple Leaf Festival is just over. For some reason, Carthage is surrounded by beautiful Maples. They come out in all their glory during a few brief days in October. The surrounding countryside transcends itself to become a sea of beautiful oranges, yellows, and golds. Our eyes are intoxicated with the beauty of it all.

The beautiful North East has nothing on this area. Instead around Carthage is a microcosmic portion of the beautiful North East so that the Mid-American Ozarklandian does not even have to leave the area to see the beautiful glories of fall and the wondrous Maple trees of Maine and states far away.

However, like the fall season of our lives, it seems that it is all too short. Just a few days and the leaves begin to fall. The wondrous tree of several days ago now goes bare just as Winter is arriving. For some reason, it seems like a terrible time to loose such a coat and almost unfair for the trees to go naked and unadorned through the winter. However that is the way it is.

In reality the leaves that we perceive to be beautiful are just a worn out old coat that must be discarded so that a new green coat will come in the Spring time.

In deed, we who are Christians believe that resurrection lies at the heart of life. Through Christ, we will shed the old coat of our worn out flesh and in the morning, in the Spring, we shall be resurrected with a new coat of indestructible flesh and life itself. Instead of dead twigs and branches we shall be full of beauty.

In the Book of Revelation, in the center of the River of Life, is a tree that blooms all the year around with healing in its leaves for the nations. It is a picture of what happens when the cross in our lives is transformed to a tree of life through the power of Christ.

The winter comes. But after that, there is the Spring.

HarleyDad