Autumn

Autumn

It's sad to see the garden yellowing

these beginning days of autumn.

Turning yellow already are hostas, the sugar maple,

lily of the valley, peonies, the white crab apple.

Though come autumn other flowers showcase yellow

for golden mums make handsome bedfellows

as does the perennial Maximilian sunflowers

and the remaining rudbeckias with gold flowers.

Some bushes are turning red

in their various garden beds -

Moses' burning bush, dogwood, forsythia,

and red berries in the barberry, hallelujah!

Red geraniums are filled with blooms

and red zinnias attract bees who zoom

in for a sip of nectar sweet

for an afternoon tea party treat.

Crisp red apples adorning apple trees

though gold or green ones will also please:

red delicious, fugi, gala, honeycrisp, cortland, golden delicious,

ida red, macintosh, northern spy – the varieties are endless.

Purple concord grapes ready for harvest.

Those warmed by the sun do taste the best.

And have you noticed - the sky is the bluest blue in October.

Do schedule a picture-taking day so you'll have photos to remember.

Chinese lanterns and pumpkins turn orange

as each year autumn's silent clock turns.

The late afternoon sunset displays rosy pink

often tinged with orange rays, then gone in a wink.

Overnight tree's leaves will turn

from green - to gold or red or orange.

Autumn dresses in a vast array

of colors that takes one's breath away.

Daily this kaleidoscope changes

over mountains, hills, and ranges

with every tock

of the clock.

Before you know it, leaves will turn brown

then begin their tumble down

making a blanket, a comforter covering the ground

while other frost-bitten plants are piled in a mound...

to compost into black gold

during the winter season cold

then in the spring heaped in the wheelbarrow then towed

to enrich the soil where flowers will again grow.

Autumn, the most colorful time of the year.

Not just the leaves but the blue sky so clear.

Autumn, each year a season that means an end to summer

with a colorful celebration ushering in winter.

Autumn's palette is wiped clean

when the first snowfall is seen

replacing autumn's rainbow with a blanket of white delights

inviting play, then hot cocoa - before day turns into night.

* * * * *

Autumn is a time to reflect

on God's abundant faithfulness.

Truly we're grateful for yearly harvest

and especially God's watchcare over us.

Everyday God himself has blessed you

with many great things proving to you

that He loves you

through and through.

Not because of what you have done

but because of life through God's Son:

love, mercy, grace, kindness, forgiveness,

salvation, eternal life, righteousness.

Our reason to rejoice and be glad

for these blessings are ironclad,

unchangeable,

always available.

Thank you, Lord, that your love for us

is ever-present, changeless.

May our every word, thought, and deed

showcase your love, becoming our creed.

Surely he has done great things.

Be not afraid, O land;

be glad and rejoice.

Surely the Lord has done great things.

Be glad, O people of Zion,

rejoice in the Lord your God,

for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness.

He sends you abundant showers,

both autumn and spring rains, as before.

Joel 2:21,23

I the Lord do not change.

Malachi 3:6

Every good and perfect fit is from above,

coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,

who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

I saw the Lord always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will live in hope.

Acts 2:25-26

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