“But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."   (Matt 13:23)

The colors have been wonderful this year, but the dead leaves are coming down.    Is that why they call it fall---because that is what the leaves do?     They fall and die, producing mulch and fertilizer for soil production which will contribute to new growth later.  It is one of those cycles of creation that God put in place, with parabolic truth under the surface.

The death that came into creation in Genesis 3 is called the fall.  God initiated the redemption plan on the mulch of that fall.   He still does. Penn State is in a fallen state, but God can bring new life from desperate situations.  In His creative and redemptive work, there is hope for life emerging from a fallen world as Jesus is lived (Phil. 1:21) and proclaimed.

There is also the fertilized seedbed for the Word of God to produce growth when the heart dies to self and falls into the recognition of need.   The Word of God can even take root on the compost of things discarded.  Some things He rakes away and removes, other things He redeems and transforms.  When confession and repentance happen, it is not unlike the autumn leaves being shed.  When we count ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11), the world can see the creative new colors of God to His eternal glory.  New life also comes forth on the soil of good things dropped for better things.  A crop yielding more than what was sown on the soil of an obedient heart is something to celebrate, and it makes my heart sing as I enjoy the colors of autumn.