October Oooohs and Aaaahs
October 30, 2021
Let the skies sing for joy! Let the earth join in the chorus. Let the oceans thunder and fields echo this ecstatic praise until every swaying tree of every forest joins in, lifting up their songs of joyous praise to him! Psalm 96: 11-12 (The Passion)
If you’ve read my Doodles over the years, you should know by now that my favorite season is Autumn. I’m not into all the scary Halloween weirdness, or the pumpkin spice everything, but I love the cooler air and the glorious colors of the trees and foliage. I just can’t get over it! Every year my little brain is blown to joyous smithereens by the tiny window of time when trees and bushes put on their annual show of color.
Bret and I thought about taking a long weekend to drive somewhere to enjoy the autumnal beauty. We are retired, for crying out loud, so how hard could it be? Well, guess what? We never got around to planning that trip, and before we knew it, our entire October was full of appointments, church meetings, and daily life. Yesterday, we finally took off for an afternoon drive. Bret, the scientific, wilderness man, decided to head southeast where Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia meet up. We drove through the big tunnel at Cumberland Gap at Middlesboro, then into Tennessee and north into Virginia to Pennington Gap and the Cranks Creek Wildlife Management Area that Bret had heard was a great place to see cool birds. (We did see an osprey!) All along the way I ooohed and aaahed at the hills covered in beautiful color. When we reached Cranks Creek, we drove down some itty bitty one lane roads trying to find a good place to photograph the loveliness. Eventually we found a couple of spots to pull over and wander a bit.
Everywhere we looked we saw the creativity of God. He didn’t have to make trees and bushes to go through this yearly change. He could have just left them to be green all the time. He didn’t have to create flowers that bloom at different times from spring to winter. He didn’t have to think up all the different animals that live on this earth. I think He thoroughly enjoyed coming up with all the diversity in nature, not only for us to oooh and aaah over, but for His own pleasure. And because of that, the swaying trees sing their praises—especially in Autumn. Get out there and enjoy the chorus, before it quiets down!
