Autumn Grace

 

Scripture

Jeremiah 29:11

 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

Devotion

Each autumn, I am surprised anew by the way the world bursts forth into beautiful colors...and all in God's own time.  Each blaze of color--each seed pod that falls to the ground and vegetable that becomes ready for harvest--as a reminder of all the ways that God's good plans for us slowly coming to fruition our whole life long.  Though God may not have always been immediately visible, it is God's hand that kept the natural world alive through winter's chill,  spring's floods, and summer's dusty heat.  Now, we rejoice as the beautiful and bounteous results of all that God has done are revealed.  The bounty we reap each fall will nourish us through yet another winter as the cycle of the natural world begins again.

This cycle reminds me of the grace we find in God.  Like the plants and animals of the more-than-human world around us, we often find ourselves at risk of being destroyed.  We shiver in with fear at the coldness people can show one another.  We feel ourselves in danger of being drowned or swept away by life's sorrows.  We become parched for a kindness/help or become scorched by rage directed at us.  Even so--even when it feels like we are about to be destroyed--God's grace saves us.  It moves in our bones, slowly bringing us to the place we were always meant to be.  And the day will comes when the bounteous harvest that God has planned for us will be revealed.

The poem by Wendell Berry below contains one of the most beautiful for God's grace that I have every read.  I encourage you to read it slowly a couple times.  If possible, read it aloud.  Then, take a few moments to picture yourself as the autumn "woods" that Berry describes.  How can you see God's grace at work in your life?  How is that grace helping you become all that you are, and where does it seem to be bringing you.  Finally, read the poem through one more time as a prayer.

Whatever you are going through--wherever you may find yourself amidst life's changing seasons--I hope you know that God's plans for you are good.  Your future is one of hope.  And though you may not always understand where you are supposed to go, how you are to get there, or even who you are supposed to be, you can trust that you will end up exactly where you are supposed to be--and all in God's own perfect time.

Be still, Beloved, and know that with God to move your bones, the way is clear.

  

 

Poem/Prayer

"Grace"

 The woods is shining this morning.
Red, gold and green, the leaves
lie on the ground, or fall,
or hang full of light in the air still.
Perfect in its rise and in its fall, it takes
the place it has been coming to forever.
It has not hastened here, or lagged.
See how surely it has sought itself,
its roots passing lordly through the earth.
See how without confusion it is
all that it is, and how flawless
its grace is. Running or walking, the way
is the same. Be still. Be still.
“He moves your bones, and the way is clear.”

-Wendell Berry