The Changing of the Seasons

The summer is coming to a close and before we know it the leaves will be turning that familiar shade of rusty brown and hurling themselves onto lawns, pavements and driveways around the country. The night will continue to encroach on the afternoon sunshine and the air will acquire that damp, earthy tang of decay, as the soil starts to process the windfall into life-giving mulch. Some people lament the end of the summer heat, whilst others, like me, revel in the glorious tastes, colours and smells the autumn months bring. Whatever your view, autumn can be a contemplative season, with the power to evoke a myriad of emotions.

The imminent changes have got me thinking about nature and how it all flows together: the systems that keep the world, and our lives, functioning. We've all been forced to think about these things a little bit more recently, haven't we, as we wrestle with the effects of global warming and try to figure out how best to right the mess we've created.

It's nothing new though is it? Facing and coming to terms with our self-induced messes has been the day-to-day reality for the whole of humankind right from the very beginning and the world we live in has always had to deal with the consequences of our bad choices. The whole world struggles because of us but it's also wonderfully involved in and yearning for its own redemption. Physically, natural systems can adapt to seek to rectify the dilemmas they face and spiritually, well that's a bit more difficult to quantify or qualify but there are pointers in scripture that hint at the natural world's involvement in spiritual matters. Jesus himself said that if the disciples weren't allowed to shout out praises to God the stones on the ground would cry out and there's that bit in Revelation that talks about every creature in heaven and on earth praising God. Yes, they may be figurative illustrations but both images have always invoked such a sense of joy and wonder in me, at both God's awesomeness and the sense that the whole of creation's fate is so intimately intertwined with our own. For better or worse we're the ones with the power and the choice to either be the earth's tireless custodians or its merciless destroyers or, perhaps more realistically, something in between.

Whatever the reality for us personally though, one simple truth is that it all keeps on going. The summer fades into autumn, which will cool into winter.The winter will then hold us in its frigid grip for a while until, eventually, new shoots of life will burst forth into another glorious spring. The world keeps turning, keeps changing, but here we stand, momentarily, at one of its wonderful changing points.

What will the new season bring?

There's only one way to find out...