Have you stopped to consider the glorious display of fireworks that occurs every October?  Just like the month of July, when the 4th holiday sparks off a series of fireworks in the sky – except that these October ones are missing the boom, smoke and ash.

It is breathtaking, really.  The maples, elms, and oaks with their various fall leaf shades – fiery red intermingled with brilliant orange, yellow, tangerine, peach, chartreuse – and trees with leaves partially green with a glowing halo.  The colors literally span every possible hue of the warm palette!

Why this amazing display?  Beyond the obvious scientific explanation for the pigment change in the leaves is the greater, grander question of why?  Why does the process work and the chemicals combine in such a way as to make a grand spectacle of color, growing more vibrant every year during this season?

I don’t know what God’s mind is.  In setting up and designing the world, He put the stars in place…the oceans in place…and the trees in place…without consulting me.  Or any other designer.  He didn’t ask any human being whether they would like the trees to turn orange – or purple – in the Spring, or in the Fall, or in the Winter – what is your preference?  No, we were not consulted.

But we have intense delight in the fall fireworks just as if they were custom-designed – for our eyes only.  I, for one, can look at tree after tree in their various hues and only marvel.  One is not more beautiful than the other, although I try to compare them.  Each tree is as beautiful as the others, all have their own unique beauty, delightful to our eyes, all are glorious masterpieces growing from the earth, with infinite numbers of colorful waterfalls that whirl the senses.

You can call me effusive with my praise of these living works of art.  A bit mushy.  I’m overreacting or slightly out of touch with reality. These are, after all, just trees. Yet, what I am reacting to is not just the beauty of fall foliage, but the deeper quality it shows in the God behind it.

Here is a god who causes exquisitely beautiful things to happen to the leaves on trees for no apparent reason, except that it thoroughly delights and warms the hearts of people.

The foliage inspires people to take time off from work to do nothing but look at the trees.  To pause at the sight of a radiant tree sparkling in the autumn sun.  To set up tours.  To take photographs.  To have a fleeting moment of wonder.

Is that not enough of a cause for heartfelt praise?  

God cares enough to create trees that delight my eyes and fill my senses with the beauty of bright colors erupting all over the place. Wow.

I am surprised that there are not more references to colorful trees in the psalms of David.  It seems that David, of all people, would notice the amazing fall firework display.  I’m guessing there are no sugar maples in Palestine.  However, the psalmist does write:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. – Psalm 19:1-3 (NIV)

God is speaking – isn’t He – through the artistic display of foliage that no one can even come close to duplicating?  It’s the language of beauty, the language of His glory, that He knows a human heart can respond to. And God speaks this language fluently, generously and without holding back, so we can know His love.

In the midst of all the negative happenings in the world and in your life, and there are certainly many negatives, you need only to take a minute to look.  Look at the fall fireworks in front of you to get the message.

How would it be to be able to hear the voice of God, speaking to you, in the beauty of a tree exploding in color?  And what are the implications, if God should speak in such a way?