Nov
13
2020
Autumn Leaves
Posted in Daily Living 4 Comments
I attend a Bible study on Wednesday evenings.
It is an eight week study.
I was asked to lead a small group of women.
It is a privilege to be together while being socially distanced.
I usually don’t have many reasons to go out on a weeknight with any regularity.
However, for another two weeks, my Wednesday nights will be spent this way.
It is a strange time during this Covid season.
It is all the more reason to try to be together safely.
It was raining quite a lot last evening.
Are you still going? My husband asked.
Yes, I have to, I answered.
I have a group that’s counting on me.
He knows that I do not like to drive in nasty weather.
I got in the car and prayed for safety for myself and the other women attending the study.
My mind went back to when I was sixteen years old.
It was the year I got my driver’s license.
My mother had died the year before.
My aunt, her sister, took on a motherly role whenever she could.
She never married or had any children of her own.
I was the daughter she never had, along with being the niece she loved very much.
I turned sixteen that July.
When the fall came, I had been driving under three months.
It can be dangerous driving in the fall, she told me in no uncertain terms.
When the leaves are wet, they are slippery, almost as slippery as ice.
I knew she was trying to help, but her warning scared me.
Every gold, orange, brown, or red leaf seemed to mock the new driver I was.
Thankfully, I never had a problem driving in the fall on the wet leaves.
However, all these years later, I still remember her warning when the leaves are wet.
When we got into our small groups, I prayed at the end of our time together.
I told the women about my husband asking me if I was still going that evening.
I told the women about the wet leaves warning I got many years ago.
Wet roads, wet leaves, and deer, I mentioned to them.
The dangerous trifecta, one of the women commented.
We all laughed.
Three thing to be aware of while using caution.
Three things that I actually prayed about before we left to go home.
My husband sent a picture on the family text thread.
He had gone out to get the mail.
He was struck by the sheer beauty of the leaves on our front lawn.
Our wrought iron bench, under a clump of trees, stood out on the carpet of yellow.
The leaves that my aunt warned me about as a new driver were so beautiful.
My oldest granddaughter squealed with delight when her daddy raked their leaves into a pile.
The sheer joy on her face as she jumped into the pile of leaves was priceless.
The same leaves.
I remember collecting leaves as a little girl.
My mother would put a leaf between two sheets of waxed paper.
She would put a thin cloth on top so that her iron would stay clean and not get waxy.
She would iron the leaf sandwich, putting her iron on medium, with no steam.
After a few minutes, the wax from the waxed paper transferred to the leaf.
I was able to preserve my favorite leaf that way.
I was able to look at the leaf I had chosen perhaps because of the shape or the color.
Those preserved leaves were very special to me.
How can something so pretty, something I wanted to preserve, be potentially dangerous?
How can something that blankets the ground like a natural carpet, be slippery as ice?
How can something potentially dangerous be raked into piles that bring such joy to a child?
How can a leaf be two things at once?
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”…Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (Genesis 2:15-17 and 3:1-7)
One tree out of a whole garden of trees was off limits.
One tree from which Adam and Eve were told not to eat.
The one tree from which they could not eat was the one tree from which they wanted to eat.
Isn’t that always the way?
The serpent tempted Eve and she ate from the tree.
She gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.
What looked so wonderful to the eye was deadly.
Their disobedience cast them, and all of us, into sin.
How can something look so wonderful and be so deadly?
Isn’t that the way sin is?
Sin deceives us.
Sin is a slippery slope.
I still love the colors of autumn.
I still think the carpet of yellow under the clump of trees is beautiful.
Yet, I still remember my aunt’s warning all these years later.
Beautiful and dangerous all at once.
Isn’t that the way it is?
Rich Parallel, Beautifully Written. Thank you Gina.
Lorna,
I can imagine your photography with this Whisper.
Blessings,
Gina
Thank you for the reminder of the deceitfulness of sin. Hopefully when I also am concerned about wet leaves on the road I will be as aware of that.
You and me both, Paula!
Blessings,
Gina