The leaf is falling! | Autumn

Do you remember that children’s song? ‘Autumn, autumn, what do you have for sale? A hundred thousand leaves in a pile!’ Autumn is a wonderful time. The green leaves on the trees turn into a blaze of yellow, orange, and red. We can really enjoy it, especially when the sun shines on them.

But there is more. Autumn also tells us that the leaves fall from the trees and the warm summer turns into the cold winter. How quickly that can happen when the first frost arrives and an autumn storm sweeps across the land. Then the flowers break and the leaves are torn from the trees. Autumn tells us: life only lasts for a moment, life passes by!  

FLOWER  

We also read this in the Bible, the book of God. There, our life is compared to a flower. A flower that blooms beautifully and shows off in the field. Until the wind blows across the land. Then the stem breaks and the beauty of the flower disappears. After a short time, you don't even remember where this flower stood.

It is the same with our lives. For a period, our life can look strong, beautiful, and good. The springtime of our childhood turns into the summertime, and happiness may smile upon us. We seem to be something special! Until the autumn storm comes and the ‘stem’ of our life—sometimes unexpectedly—breaks. Then our beauty is gone, our life stops.  

But does it really end then? What is the purpose of life here on earth? Will it really be over when we die? The Bible gives answers to these questions. There we read that our life on earth passes away, but ultimately is without end. Our dead body will come back to life. Then we will receive our endless destiny. There are two possibilities: Eternally with God, which is true happiness. Or eternally without God, which is utter misery. Because of our sins, namely that we do not do what God asks of us, we live without Him. But God can change that. In the Bible we read about Jesus, He is the Son of God. Without beginning and without end. He is the Way back to God. The stem of Jesus’ life was indeed broken by the storm of death. But He rose again from the dead! As the first of all the endlessly happy ones! Jesus says of them:  

John 17, verse 3
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.