Finally, the days are becoming a little cooler, and we’re pulling out our soup recipes and sweaters. Soon, that queen of New England delights will show up everywhere we look: the leaves will change color. People from all over will come to witness this beauty, sometimes by the bus-full. Our hillsides will resemble a massive quilt with reds, oranges, yellows, and the greens of interspersed evergreen trees.

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Of course, the darker side of this beautiful phenomenon is that the leaves are dying, but they are dying so that the tree may live. The tree is letting them go intentionally. In summer, the broad leaves collected sunlight and held moisture. They turned that sunlight into sugar that fed the tree. But in a different season, those thin, broad leaves go from being life-giving to being a liability. Moisture would freeze and rupture the exposed cells of the leaves and they wouldn’t be able to photosynthesize, the weight of snow or force of wind on broad leaves could cause more limb breakage, and many leaves by the end of summer are partially eaten by insects or diseased anyway. The tree needs to change its strategy to fit the new environment.

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So, the tree carefully stops the flow of water and nutrients to the leaf and instead builds a new layer of cells that cuts the connection between the branch and leaf. This takes time but it leaves the branch without an open wound that could get infected. And then, despite how essential the leaves were to the life of the tree in summer, it lets go of those leaves because they will not serve it in this new season. This decision made for life-sustaining reasons leaves the tree looking dead from the outside.

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And it will look dead for a whole season. But those leaves aren’t done serving the tree yet. They will decompose at the tree’s base, giving nutrients to a new generation of leaves that will grow when the time is right. Can we look at things we love that may seem dead or dying to us, and see the nourishment they will give the new and different possibilities of the future? Beloveds, this season I pray we have the ability to let go of that which no longer serves us, the time to lament and heal that which we’ve lost, and the faith to trust that God is always making all things new. And, of course, I hope that you get a chance to appreciate the beauty of this season.

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Blessed be,

Pastor Alison