Fall colors

It’s October, and the display of fall colors in many parts of North America is glorious to behold. Everywhere we see shades of yellow, orange, and red—all perfectly accented by shades of green. The colors aren’t just simple colors from a paint set, however. The Creator has provided us with a constantly changing painting that contains every imaginable hue and shade. Not only do the colors alter from day to day, but they also shift through the day as the sunlight becomes more intense or as the clouds shade the sun’s rays.

Notice that maple tree n the foreground beside the road. It’s been changing from green to brilliant red over the last week. In a day or two every leaf will be scarlet. Each translucent leaf is becoming a jewel as the light shines through it. Together the leaves glow iridescently in the sunlight. When seen from a distance, the tree is an explosion of color that defies description.

What a lesson this teaches! As the life-giving chlorophyll disappears from the leaves in autumn, the substances left can produce any number of colors, depending on their chemical composition. The colors were there all along but were invisible because of the overpowering influence of the chlorophyll. When the inner colors do come forth, they are short-lived. Soon the brightly colored leaves will fall and turn brown. Then comes winter.

It is interesting that really brilliant fall colors occur only where winters are snowy. Our sins, like the leaves of the maple tree, are scarlet. But they can fall away and be replaced by the pure covering of Christ’s righteousness. “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white a snow.” Isa. 1:18.

A word from our Creator – ”Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:7.

(From ‘Nature Quest’—James and Priscilla Tucker).