Early this morning, in first-period Bible class at the Christian high school at which I teach, one of my students greeted me with “Happy first day of fall!” I smiled and said, “Ah, yes; fall, the time when everything is dying, but looks good doing it.”
Don’t worry about my students. They are quite used to my mischievous musings.
It really is true, though. It is in autumn that the leaves turn from the green of life to the lovely reds and purples and oranges that mark their coming death. People drive, often for hundreds of miles, to find lovely vistas on places like the Blue Ridge Parkway from which to view the spectacular colors. And, truthfully, it really is the nicest time of the year. With all due respect to the springtime when the flowers once again begin to bloom, the summertime filled with gardens and vacations, and the wintertime filled with holiday cheer, there is nothing quite like a cool fall day, especially when adorned with apple cider.
The seasons are, quite naturally, used as markers for life. A newborn babe is said to be in the springtime of life, while an octogenarian is said to be in the wintertime of life. The seasons, both calendrical or anthropological, are also something given to us by the good hand of God himself.
Genesis 1:14: And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.