The Beauty of Fall

When I think of the fall season the one word that comes to my mind is beauty.  As fall sets in we begin to experience cool mornings and notice that the leaves on trees begin turning color.  Have you ever wondered why and how leaves change color? Why does a maple leaf turn bright red?  Where do the yellows and oranges and browns come from?

To answer these questions we must remember that leaves are food factories.  Plants take water from the ground through their roots and receive carbon dioxide from the air.  They use sunlight to turn the water and carbon dioxide into glucose, which is a kind of sugar.  A chemical called chlorophyll helps make that happen and gives plants their green color.  As the days of fall get shorter, trees shut down their food-making factories and live off the food they have stored during the summer. When the green chlorophyll disappears it leaves small amounts of yellow and orange, which unbeknown to us, have been in the leaves all along.  In maple trees glucose is trapped in the leaves and the sunlight plus the cool nights cause them to turn into a red color.  The brown color in the leaves of oak trees is made from wastes that are left in the leaves.  It is the combination of all these things that make the beautiful colors we enjoy in the fall.

When we think of the beauty in the trees and the leaves we need to remember that all this began with creation.  “Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so.  The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:13-14).  The Apostle Paul reminds us of God’s creative and sustaining power when he said, “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17).  What a wonderful God we have who gives us this wonderful beauty all year long, but particularly in the fall.  With Solomon of old we can affirm, "He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). I’m so glad that God enjoys beauty and delights in sharing that beauty with you and me.