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Listen while you read: "All Hail To Thee Immanuel"1
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Ecclesiastes 3:11 – He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. (NKJV)
On a recent trip back to south-western Ontario, Canada, for a wedding, my wife and I were treated to one of the beautiful splendours of that area: the annual turning of the leaves with their fall colours. I didn't realize just how much I used to enjoy this wonderful sight until I had been away from it for a number of years.
Here in Midwestern Canada, we don't have the maple trees that give most of the colour. We have many poplar and birch that do turn a bright yellow, but there just isn't the mix of colour. Occasionally we get a little red from the sumac bushes, but it just isn't the same. In that area of the country, on a sunny day the trees give off a glow that takes the breath away. It can almost dazzle the eyes with the brightness of the colour. Red, orange, yellow, and the green of the evergreens mixed in. What a sight!
Many years ago my family and my wife's family took a trip into Central Ontario, or what is called on some tourist signs, "Rainbow Country". The leaves surely make a rainbow of colour to awe and inspire anyone who can see them. It really does look as if the Master Painter has taken a paintbrush and used the leaves as his canvas.
As I sat and pondered about what to write in this devotional, I wasn't sure if the scripture verse said just what I wanted to convey. It was then that I thought of an old familiar hymn written by Conrad Kocher, "For the beauty of the earth." Although all the verses speak of God's beauty in some way, verse two just leapt off the page at me.
- For the beauty of beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon and stars of light,
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.
Prayer: Almighty God we really do praise you for the beauty of this earth. For sights and sounds that you give to us each and every day. You truly are an awesome God to think of such beauty and then to share it with us. Amen.
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About the author:
David Leggatt <leggattd@gmail.com>
Wiarton, Ontario, Canada
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The glorious leaves are providing a plethora of colors to our delight! God’s paintbrush is working overtime! Thanks for sharing this timely reminder of God’s creativity. Blessings.
Hello David
Thank you for your message. The colors are truly amazing and the smell in the fall air, I miss that now that I am living in the Azores and everything stays green the odd yellow leaf. But oh nothing can compare to God’s beautiful trees!!!
Blessings.
Thank you for sharing this insight. We are truly blessed by all the colour, and appreciate it even more when the colours are more sporadic like this year, and the trees that are colourful really pop out.