Contrast

And here we are again with a new school year! Where does the time go? I feel like I keep trying to hold onto it and put it in my pockets only to find it slipped out like coins through loose stitching. Our youngest, our baby who was so much younger than the other two I felt certain he would never grow up, is a senior in high school! Our oldest and his wife are expecting the delivery of their second son, our second grandson, any day now. Such an exciting season in our lives!

Yet at the same time my dad still is stuck in his bed with Alzheimer’s and my beloved Yellow lab Gracie is living on borrowed time with cancer…and such is life. There’s no such thing as a perfect season. Too many elements are involved. We are all connected. There is joy and sorrow, contentment and fear, life and death, all happening at the same time, and one would not be defined and recognized without the other. Just as Autumn brings the most beautiful vibrant colors of red, rust, yellow, orange, gold, and brown, these are born of stress, the change of weather patterns and earth’s orbit. Beauty for ashes. Even scripture likens humanity to the trees. “To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”

Isaiah 61:3

As we near the richest, loveliest season of all, let us be thankful for contrast, as it gives us clarity and perspective in all things, from artwork to heart-work.