Change is in the air...

Autumn came to Washington with a smile that was warm, inviting, and completely refreshing.  The leaves changed colors--bright reds, oranges, and yellows, mingled with the long-lasting deep greens of summer.  The rains didn't come, not for a long time.  So different than normal in Washington.  Once they came, however, we were once again reminded of the freshness the water brings.  The newness, even in the dying of the earth's plants, the water washed it all clean.  Even the fellows at my parent's house soaked in that first rain, after waiting until mid-October.

I talk about the fall because, well, it's about change.  As we change from the heat and dryness of summer, to the chill and wetness of winter, we experience change...  Externally--school buses crowd our commutes again, daylight slips away, fields flood with an excess of rain. 

Perhaps because our world is full of change, I embrace it, like a close, well-loved friend.  When I have the opportunity to learn something new, to change projects I'm working on... I feel challenged and alive.

At this point in my life, I feel like the dry summer is about to come to an end.  I've made such a drastic change in my life right now, that I know the rain is about to fall.  The change in season is awakening and feeding a yearning in my life to serve God even more wholly--to know Him and His will even more closely than before.  It's right before the rain falls that things are the scariest...  The fires come and burn the dry brush.  The scorched earth bakes in the sun.  The animals choose poison to eat, simply because it is the only green left in their fields.  It can feel... desperate. 

And then the first drop comes.  Like a tear, a cry so soft, so desperate...  The second drop falls.  The third.  The earth is quickly awash with moisture, the ground soaking it in, drinking it in, as if it has never experienced this before.  So it is in life--the fires wash away, hope dances in the puddles, change is in the air.

It is frightening.  The rain can wash away the dry soil.  The rain can come too late to give the grass the nutrients it needs.  The rain can flood and destroy. 

BUT...  CHANGE... it's in the air.

And it's fresh and clean and oh, so exciting.