Overflowing with Abundance

November 11, 2023

You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance. ~ Psalm 65:11 NLT

I never thought about just how many leaves fall in autumn, until a week ago. I was visiting a home outside of Harrisonburg in a wooded established residential neighborhood. I’d been there in early September when the labyrinth in the back yard begged to be walked. This time, the labyrinth wasn’t visible beneath at least eighteen inches of fallen leaves. The owner mentioned that she did some research and learned that the tulip trees in her yard are capable of producing 400,000 leaves per tree. I can’t verify that number but did discover that the maple trees in our yard can each bear 10,000 “helicopter” seeds in the spring and drop 100,000 leaves in the fall. Talk about abundance!

We swim in a culture of not-enough and an endless need for more and better. It affects our wallets, our over-full closets, and our capacity to comprehend that sometimes more is less and less is more. As I look at the trees in my backyard, I wonder what it must feel like to shed all those leaves in a glorious, if temporary, blaze of color. What is it like for the now-bare branches to be touched by the sunlight, to feel the autumn rain on bark, to be unburdened for a period of naked exposure to all the elements. To let go, trusting that enough is enough for now. Trusting that deep underground, the roots grow deeper and stronger. Trusting that at just the right time, new growth will occur. Trusting that the Creator revels in fallow fields, in autumn and winter every bit as much as spring and summer.

And so, on this lovely autumn day, I am watching the late dropping leaves flutter to the ground and trusting in the Lord of the Harvest, the Lord of time, from my front row seat. ~ Anne