Fall is lovely here in the northern reaches of Kentucky. As the season progresses, bushes, shrubs and trees of all sizes and shapes begin to transform; their canopies of varying green become woven tapestries of yellow, red, orange, and purple hues.  The biological mechanism behind this transformation is actually very interesting (The Science of Color in Autumn Leaves).  Eventually, all of these colorful leaves will fall, especially after a good windy day, and become smothering crinkly blankets of brown that must be removed from lawns all across suburbia.  This is something I don’t think any homeowner looks forward to doing but they also know it has to be done if they don’t want their yard eventually turning into a mushy mess in which nothing seems to grow.  During the Fall, especially on weekends, the drone of leaf blowers can be heard as homeowners attempt to blow the leaves off their lawns and into piles (or sneakily onto their neighbor’s lawns!).

Perhaps the Fall season has a message and reminder for us.  All of these trees proudly draped in these splendid colors are suddenly stripped bare and left empty.  What happens to those trees reminds me of  Proverbs 16:18 which states “Pride goes before disaster, and a haughty spirit before a fall”.  I have often found that the times that I might start feeling or acting a bit prideful, are the times that precede me figuratively tripping, stumbling, or doing a complete “face plant”.  As soon as I choose to start draping myself with the yellows and oranges of boastful thinking or the red and purple thoughts of self adulation, I no sooner find myself doing or saying something that strips that all away and humbly exposes me for what I truly am.  Pride sets us up for a fall.  Actually, all of our sin originates from PRIDE.  Sin is us proudly telling God “I am choosing to do my will over Your Will”.  Sin is us foolishly adorning ourselves in the temporal colors of pride.  And just like the trees in the Fall season, eventually something happens, perhaps the intervening breeze of God’s gentle admonishment, that strips all of that away.

And what are we left with after that happens?  Nothing but our bareness, and nothing to show for it but a pile of rotting brown.  And let’s face it, just like homeowners, none of us want to deal with those piles.  But we must because if we don’t, they will smoother out other things within ourselves or others around us.  Sure, some of us will try to blow those piles into our neighbor’s yard by making excuses, blaming others, or justifying our sins.  But the only thing that works is for us to get out there, clean up those piles by reconciling ourselves to God.  It’s not an easy thing to do and requires us to honestly look at ourselves with humility.  Sometimes we choose to avoid doing these necessary cleanups by spending more time looking at all the leaf litter on our neighbor’s lawn in the hopes that it will make our own yard appear not so bad.  Or worst yet, we simply lower our standards by listening to popular culture which tells us those brown piles of decay really aren’t brown piles of decay and that we should conform to what everyone else is doing.  But a pile of brown decay is still a pile of brown decay (see Romans 6:23) regardless of what the world tells us.

So those are my musings for now.  Hopefully this is something we can all reflect on as we enjoy the Fall colors and spend time raking up the brown leaves.  It’s time for me to get out the leaf blower while my neighbor isn’t looking…. (just kidding!).