Leaves...

Have you ever watched a tree? I intend the anthropomorphism, because the other day, while waiting for a friend, I sat and stared at a few trees, and I began to feel sorry for them. I felt like I was watching the sheer amount of work in growing and sustaining leaves each year and the grief of loosing hundreds of thousands of leaves in these next few weeks...

But I also was drinking in the beauty of the richness of color... Each leaf, whole or torn, lovely or misshapen, is part of a continuum of colors that set each other off, especially against the pale blue of an October afternoon sky. And each leaf interacts with the elements, twisting to the subtle breezes, and catching the waning sunlight.

As I watched and appreciated God's creativity expressed in nature, I began to mull that the leaves had done little (or nothing at all, really) to earn their color, or wave their unique patterns in the wind ... they had simply remained on the branch. Their role was, most simply put, staying until it was time to leave. Staying until it is time to leave.