Lesson from a Leaf

By Brenda Black

We were looking over the cattle herd the other day, sizing up potential heifers and calculating returns on steers that would soon make the trip to town. Satisfied with the tour, it was time to head home. But before we left the pasture, I snagged a dozen giant Sycamore leaves splashed in fall glory of blaze orange, yellow and red. In that brief moment of gathering nature's free souvenirs, I was six again – romping through the timber, collecting acorns, leaves and late summer flowers that refused to give up with the change of seasons.

Once home, I arranged my autumn harvest in a pretty glass bowl and placed them center stage on a table. When my husband asked what I was doing, I said, “I'm being a little girl again and reliving my childhood.”

The smell of wet soil, the sound of crunching leaves and twigs, the easy view of a red, fluffy tailed squirrel against grey bark are wonders in the autumn woods. They never grow old or lose their charm. Even if I am not that wide-eyed child any longer, I am thankful that a sense of wonder lingers decades after those first fascinating impressions were discovered. This adult life is filled with complexities and chaos and there's just something about a walk in the woods that brings calm and reminders of a care-free, simpler time. Getting back to the basics never did a body harm.

In our advanced culture filled with gadgets and unending demands on our time and attention, sometimes we just need to pull back, unplug and go for a walk in the woods. Take a lesson from this late-in-the-year season. There is a time for everything and at times, time needs to slow its pace and we just need to float like a leaf on the breeze for a few minutes.

God didn't paint a gorgeous October to be ignored. He didn't carve beautiful, trickling streams to step over, then not notice the smooth stones shimmering beneath the surface. The pleasure is worthy of pause. And this is just a rehearsal!

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelations 22:1-5)

If I am mesmerized by a dead leaf plucked from withering grasses, I can't begin to fathom how overwhelmed I'll be standing beneath a tree so large that a river runs through it; that river so crystal clear that it reflects a perfect city. And standing there with me, the Lamb of Glory, who not only understands my childish ways, He laughs with me and longs for me to come to Him with such childlike abandon. In heaven, I'll be a little girl again!










It's amazing what a few leaves made me think. The simple notion of a leaf loosed from its branch launched my mind down a wandering path of times loved and fondly remembered, providing lessons for today and hope for tomorrow. The basic principle: The golden carpet of a woodland floor is only possible when the leaves let go. Some of life's most precious times are going to be missed if we don't allow ourselves to just float into the moment. And the most important walk in the woods we'll ever take is yet to come. Until then, I pray I never lose my childlike faith.

The Word's Out copyright 2013

As the World Turns

By Brenda Black

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:25-27)

I know this. I believe this. But then I look at creation and I worry for the birds of the air. In the midst of a storm, how in the world does a chickadee cling to bending branches with thread thin claws and miniscule talons? How come the killdeer is not extinct since she lays her eggs in the road where gigantic, racing tires can crush them? And why would a wild turkey place her nest so easily accessible to passing coyotes? I wonder, and worry I suppose, how does creation continue in a world full of violent storms, man-made hazards and natural enemies. Then, I have to admit, maybe I don't give enough credit to One who orders this world and supervises it.

“Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, or the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:4-9)

God is in control!

Whew! That's a huge relief...if I truly believe. And that, my friends, is a daily struggle – to turn it over to Him. To trust He will do what is best. To surrender my anxieties to the One who calms the sea and feeds the hungry. I have a tendency to worry much. I fret for myself and for others. I lose sleep thinking about things far beyond my control. It is folly and foolishness. It is faithlessness and futility.

So today when I stumbled upon something I've never before seen, I found myself instantly exhilarated and just as suddenly anxious. She flew up right before my eyes and departed, but left me looking downward as I gazed on a wild turkey nest brimming with prospects. I've never lost my child-like wonder for all creatures great and small. There I stood amazed and tickled to see the pale cream and brown speckled evidence of a good spring. I counted the clutch without touch to a total of ten.

Then with dismay, I spied one, two and a third crushed shell carried near and far from the safety of her lair. The contents licked clean, no doubt had satisfied some scavenger. Immediately, I started to worry – over something of which I have absolutely no control. God made the turkey, she made the nest, those are her eggs and responsibility. He also made the critter those turkey eggs fed. Life is not so much a mystery novel as it is a book of facts. I walked away, but not unscathed. For it made me think just how much we assume life is safe. It is not!

Solomon spelled it out in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes. “I also thought, 'As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal.'” (Ecc. 3:18-19a)

Though Solomon concludes that “Everything is meaningless,” I contend that it gives even greater meaning to life. Life is precious and short and uncertain. It is priceless. Life is beautiful and dangerous and exciting. It is limited. There are no guarantees, only opportunities.

Are you a brave little chickadee, weathering storms in life? Are you a killdeer living on the edge and taking unnecessary chances? Are you a turkey who's just doing your best to protect your nest and sometimes losing the battle? Whatever feather you wear at the moment, I pray you are filled with more faith than fear to endure it. And I pray that you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. That's our only safety.

2012 copyright by Brenda Black, The Word's Out

What a Wonder You Are

What a Wonder You Are
By Brenda Black

I wonder – Does the Lord who never sleeps wait each morning to dip His finger into the sea. With the color from the coral reef, does He swirl them across dawning horizon with grandiose brush-like sweeps. Or does He set things in motion from the dawn of time, knowing each day ahead of its arrival for a million and beyond. Will every sunrise sky-scape He's designed appear across the vast universe right on time. He is, remember, omniscient. “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3)

Or does the God of Wonders commission sun, wind, moon and water each new day to be at the ready. He lets them shine and blow their way into fog, heat, breezes and tempests and watches expectantly. Though He allows the fare and stormy weather to come as circumstances beckon, are they lengthened or averted as man glorifies or cries out in prayer. “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry;...The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.” (Psalm 34:15, 17)

I wonder - Are the sunsets assigned marching orders so that somewhere in the world each evening one should be so breathtaking as to compel worship for its General. Are twilights bottled somewhere beyond the heavens in a celestial warehouse and delivered on schedule. “The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets.” (Ps. 50:1) He calls extravagant clouds, blackened downpours and spontaneous rainbows, this artist behind ever-changing heavenly masterpieces that grace our world. Oh, what a wonder you are!

“Praise the Lord, O my soul. O Lord, my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants.

“He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. You covered with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them. You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth.

“He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches. He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work. He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate – bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart. The trees of the Lord are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. There the birds make their nests; the stork has its home in the pine trees. The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the coneys.

“The moon marks off the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down. You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God. The sun rises, and they steal away; they return to lie down in their dens. Then man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening.

“How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures...I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to him as I rejoice in the Lord. But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord.” (Ps. 104:1-25, 33-35)

While we watch the evil loom larger and destruction of a planet perfectly made, may we look to the heavens and find God faithful in all of His ways. His mercies are new every morning and His creative touches are forever before us. To ignore so great a testimony of divine orchestration is simply ignorant and dangerous. “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)

One day, the heavens will roll back, the sun and moon and stars will shine no more, for the light of the Holy One will take their place. In that heavenly city, it “does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” (Revelation 21:23)

I wonder - Who will you acknowledge then – when you stand before the Master Painter who graced your days with beauty and privilege only to watch man take it for granted and wallow in self-praise. “'Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End...I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David and the bright MORNING STAR.'” (Rev. 22:12-13, 16)

No wonder the sunrise sings His praise. No wonder the sun sets without fear of darkness. No wonder the winds and waters obey. All of nature knows better than man himself – the God of Wonders is worthy of honor and glory every morning, noon and night.