it was after all, A painfully beautiful Fall.

He's been good to me this year.

The thing about Florida, is that you miss the Fall. We miss seeing the trees catch fire and burn with color, intense reds and golds. And then, as the season draws to a close, the tree's slowly drop their colorful coat till there's nothing left but naked, bare branches.

(just a highly poetic review of how the season works, for those of you knew to this whole thing. You're welcome!)

My whole point in that grand illusion was that last year, I was breaking and decaying. Just like the leaves, I was dying.

And even so, He made it glorious.

Fall is more than just a season for nature, it can be a season for us too. I was and still am in a great and wonderful Fall. I am being stripped (ever had an eating disorder? Ever lost your best friend?) and yet still, somehow, it is dazzling and brilliant and positively radiant.

And the color that shines through me, pristine shades of red and those of gleaming amber?

That my friends, is the glory of Christ.

I had wrong. I had mistaken this all for a desolate Winter. But no, this was a Fall. A season of dying to self, of shedding earthly layers, of laying it all under His tree.

Part of me was dying.

The rest was being born again.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 

a time to be born, and a time to die;

 a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

 a time to break down, and a time to build up; 

a time to weep, and a time to laugh; 

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

Friends, are you going through a Fall? It's beautiful struggle, I promise.