Autumn Colors

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:20-21 ESV). Autumn is my favorite time of the year. Living in Middle Tennessee has been especially wonderful for this time of the year. For those of you who have traveled through the Smoky Mountains, you know the incredible color produced by the deciduous trees of this range. Red, gold, yellow, orange all burst in the backdrop of misty mountains. Mary and I haven’t had the opportunity to take the drive yet, but we will soon. In the mean time, there is no lack of beauty in our area. The drive to our church takes us through some of the prettiest roads in Middle Tennessee. One day, as I made the drive, I thought of our reading today. The Apostle Paul talks about the work of grace in our lives in terms of death. We die and Jesus lives in us. This brought me to another thought, so I did a little more research about Autumn leaves. Did you know that the true colors of the leaves are those we see in the fall? During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis, which makes the leaves green. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can't see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll. Isn’t that really what Christ wants to do in us? When we stop working so hard to live on our own, he gives us rest while he works within us. As a researcher and physician, Francis Collins' credentials and accomplishments are well-respected in the scientific community. He headed up the Human Genome Project before serving as the Director of the National Institutes of Health. In 2007 he also wrote a New York Times best-selling book, The Language of God, which weaves together the story of his work as a world-renowned scientist and his journey from atheism to faith in Christ. Then after a long period of searching, which included grilling a pastor and reading C.S. Lewis, Collins finally came to Christ after watching the beauty of creation. This is Collin's description of that life-changing encounter: I had to make a choice. A full year had passed since I decided to believe in some sort of God, and now I was being called to account. On a beautiful fall day, as I was hiking in the Cascade Mountains during my first trip west of the Mississippi, the majesty and beauty of God's creation overwhelmed my resistance. As I rounded a corner and saw a beautiful and unexpected frozen waterfall, hundreds of feet high, I knew the search was over. The next morning, I knelt in the dewy grass as the sun rose and surrendered to Jesus Christ. Autumn colors… do they call you to life?