Autumn's Colorful Trees Series

(Introduction)

L.M. Montgomery in Anne of Green Gables wrote, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

Me too!

The temperatures are getting cooler.

The colors of the leaves on the trees are turning more and more vivid.

Autumn Is A Second Spring When Every Leaf Is A ...

By Sermon Central

Copied from Sermon Central

Someone once wrote, “autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”

Fall vegetables are in season.

There’s nothing like picking your own pumpkin, taking it home, making some amazing artful creation with it and eventually roasting those seeds for a great afternoon snack.

By the way, do you know how to fix a broken pumpkin? With a pumpkin patch.

Do you know what the ratio of a pumpkin’s circumference is to its diameter? Pumpkin PI.

Autumn is here.

Change is in the air.

This time of year gives us the amazing opportunity to stop and appreciate the majesty and handiwork of God that surrounds us.

The stunning fall foliage invites us to look around and begs us to take notice of the changing landscape.

Fall is a time for us to be still in the moment and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation.

Fall gives us a special opportunity to reflect on the majesty of all that God has made.

We are beginning this morning a short study guided by the creative colors God gives us this time of year.

Today, we are going to reflect on the beauty of the changing colors of the fall trees.

There are four lessons we can learn from these beauties God has put on display for us to see.

1. Autumn trees teach us to let our true colors shine through.

I want to take a brief detour into a short science lesson this morning to explain why the leaves on the trees change colors.

https://scijinks.gov/leaves-color/

Leaves are green in the spring and summer because there is lots of sunlight. The days are longer. The trees need to grow. Green leaves are fully of a chemical called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll gives the leaves their green color, but is also needed for the leaves to turn sunlight in to the much needed food to grow and sustain the tree through the process called photosynthesis.

Now as fall settles in, the days get shorter, there’s less sunlight, the days and nights become cooler. This is a signal for the leaves to begin to prepare for winter. They slowly stop making chlorophyll. The green starts to fade, and the leaves begin to show reds, oranges and yellows.

If it is too dry, the leaves do not remain hydrated and begin to wither away, turning brown and falling to the ground.

If we have too much rain and wind, the leaves get knocked off the trees and end up falling to the ground as well.

But when the amount of rain through the summer and fall is just right, the vibrant colors will just pop!

These colors are caused by other chemicals in the leaves. Each color has its own chemical. Each tree has its own blend of chemicals.

And so, as the chlorophyll levels drop in the leaves, the other chemicals, which have been there the whole time, cause the leaves to show their true color.

It appears that the leaves are changing colors.

The truth is, the color has always been there. The true color has just been hidden by the green.

Often, we are just like the leaves. We do whatever we have to do in order to survive in our daily lives.

Our true colors get lost in the pressures and stresses of life.

Sometimes we are like the leaves. Sometimes we are like river rocks.

Rain On The Rocks

By Jack Kale

Copied from Sermon Central

Jack Kale tells the story that he and his family were on the last morning of a five day float down the Buffalo River in Arkansas. They had joined another family for the second annual Kale-Parker river trip. Everyone had their own boat and each was packed with supplies that you might need for such a trip.

Things were stowed in dry-bags and waterproof boxes and piled into their combined 6 canoes and 4 kayaks.

They were camped just past Skull Rock and in between White Bluff and Tyler Bend on a great rock-bar. The night had been filled with an Independence Day like firefly show as those little bugs lit up the night in the thousands. The next morning, he tells, was when he noticed the rain on the rocks.

He tells it like this: “Just after sunup, I got out of my knock off Eno and made my way to our makeshift kitchen. I stumbled over the dusty brown rocks that made up our campsite as I filled the stainless steel pot with river water. Waiting for the joe to percolate, I listened to the water’s music as it rushed past our camp. That’s when the sky turned black and I saw the rain coming our way. I scrambled to makes sure everyone was ok and that canoes were turned over. I barely got that first cup of coffee poured when the rains came. We spend the next hour huddled under tarps as we waited out the rain. It only lasted an hour and it wasn’t that bad as river rains go. The tarp was still pitter-pattering from the wet willows overhead when I emerged from my haven. I was ready for another cup of coffee and needed to check on the kids.