“Fall”

Today's reading Acts 10:40-41 (NIV): 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

The fall leaves are flying around Raintree Street with fury. They were so pretty for a few days and now they are wet, in our gutters and on the ground. That means Saturday we have work to do. When I pulled into our drive way this afternoon and saw the overflowing gutters I just cringed.

Fall is bitter sweet in my opinion as I love the aroma’s, the memories of marching band festivals and opportunities to snap a beautiful photo of nature vs. the huge leaf piles and clean up work that has to take place. Seems like the leaves never end and they are everywhere.

The same is true with God; He is everywhere and He never ends! Jesus also had bittersweet moments. The joys of seeing people believe in Him as their savior vs. the bitterness He must have tasted while on the cross. People flocked to Jesus all in a fury and He experienced storms on the Sea of Galilee to the soldiers hunt in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The disciples had many memories of his fall, just as I do for the leaves that have fallen. Jesus took the fall for us at the end of a powerful ministry that changed the world forever. The disciples must have cringed as they faced the empty tomb. Who is going to clean up this mess on the roadways in Jerusalem they may have been asking each other. Some of them saw only misery ahead rather than remembering the sweetness of His presence.

Then there were those that God chose to see Him - the beautiful, colorful risen savior that took the fall for us. Perhaps this weekend as you clean out your gutters the leaves will remind you of the wetness and dampness Jesus took away when he died. He left his chosen ones the sight to see and understand. He has chosen us to see and experience Him.

What do you see when you look at the fallen? (Leaves or Jesus either one)


Dorothy Drago Brucks
Aldersgate UMC, Nixa, Mo.
www.aldersgatechurch.com