Fallen Again

I finally am through my archives from the trips we had this summer and am now entering the fall photos.  I am not much of a people photographer but I have a few here of the time that my dear brother was here from Africa.  We have a very lively church and often have demonstrations that give a visual image of the things we’re talking about.  My brother has been all over the world and intends to break some new ground and so we had some demonstrations that illustrated this…blurry yes but I still like the image here. I can safely say we all miss him dearly.  Visiting him with my family in Ghana was a dream I’ve had for many years and having him come here after that was the icing on the cake.  Now we hold fast to the memories we have and cherish the images in our mind…he is every inch a man of God and truly one of my heroes of faith.  Now we are alone again much like this leafbut thankfully this is just one more season and there’s no distance in the spirit…we are always together inside where it counts.  Fall is a season of stark changes…it is usually pretty short here so I had to capture the incredible blue skies and changing leaves quickly when the opportunity arose.  Sometimes the cold can come on so abruptly that the changing leaves get frost bittenand I feel this is a warning to the unwary.  The times we live in require that we be prepared…not just physically but spiritually.  It doesn’t take much to be upset seeing the things happening during these days but someone that refuses to give up hope not just on a personal level but for the United States and the world at large sticks out of the crowd.  The Bible says watch and pray…I intend to just that so as not to be caught unaware.  Some years the changes are stark and beautiful however that wasn’t so much the case here…lot’s of browns in the mix this time.  I’m so surprised to see things going to the next season so quickly yet a final blossom hung on even this late…if things are getting darker…and I believe they are…I intend to hang on as long as I can by God’s grace and be a symbol of hope.  You can have the strongest support system in the world but if you find yourself separated from it you are cut off indeed.  Faith and relationship with Christ has always been the most important thing in the world to me but now more than ever I realize, it’s not extra credit…it’s the only way to survive.  For now the leaves have fallen again…but soon it will be a whole new season again and there’s always hope in that.