On a recent cool breezy afternoon, I sat on my front porch casually sipping tea and watching fall move across the landscape. Of course, my loyal Golden Retriever companion, Micah, sat by my side sniffing the crisp cool air. My yard is almost covered with fallen leaves and the garden is filled with autumn cabbages and a variety of lettuces. I notice that one of the peach trees that grace my front lawn is now bare of all its leaves while the other peach tree remains full and rich with green leaves that have no intention of leaving their branches. It isn’t a case of the green leaves clinging to the final vestiges of life, they simply are not ready to fall to the ground. There isn’t a hint of brown among them. It isn’t their time. Even with the peach trees the individuality is remarkable.
As I sit and notice the differences, I consider the power of order. With divine order always active in every aspect of life, everything occurs in its right and perfect time. There is nothing to be forced or contrived. I can simply allow order to flow and life to move just as it is designed. I can rest and trust that all is well. Each of the planets revolve in their right rhythm without my giving them an instant of thought. Life begins and ends in human form as life must. The seasons tumble from one to another on que - winter, spring, summer, fall.
As I consider times in my life when I felt the need to be in charge and forge ahead with my ideas, I realize I frequently initiated my own pain, suffering and unsettledness. I wonder how these experiences might have unfolded if I had simply allowed divine order to move and shift in the universe thus allowing each moment of life to flow. I am supposing that I would have completely avoided some experiences and others likely would have evolved differently.
Oh, how my youthful thinking causes me to grin today! When I think of how easy it has become to allow what is desiring to unfold so effortlessly. These are the beautiful moments of life when I say “I am in the flow”. What I have come to realize is that I am always in the flow of the energy of the universe. The difference is, sometimes I am pushing back against the flow, resisting it with my own personal will. Other times I am mindful of the perfection of divine order and I allow order to be.
I am easily reminded of words that became a hit song by the Byrds in the early 1960s. The scripture of Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 inspire me today:
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
AH, everything is beautiful in its time and try as I might, I really cannot fathom what God has done. In time I do learn a few things as I grow in spiritual maturity.
With age and mindful living comes wisdom, with wisdom comes patience, with patience comes allowing the beauty of divine order to unfurl life in perfection.
Mom and I are sending love from Pittsburgh,
Rev. Karen