This morning, I looked out on my back deck and smiled.
It was covered in fallen leaves.
To someone else, they might have looked like a mess that needed to be cleaned up. But I saw something different.
I saw Fall.
And Fall is my favorite season.
As I looked at those beautiful leaves scattered across the deck, I began thinking about how much a tree can teach us about life.
Every year, the tree grows.
It adds another ring. Another season. Another year of stretching toward the sky and putting down deeper roots. Year after year, it grows a little more.
And then autumn comes.
The leaves change color, and eventually, they fall.
We don’t look at a tree and think something has gone wrong when its leaves begin to fall. We know this is part of its life. The falling leaves are actually evidence that the tree has lived through another growing season.
There is something comforting about that.
Perhaps our own lives are like that.
We grow. We learn. We change. We put down roots. We experience seasons of abundance and seasons of quiet. And, if we are paying attention, we discover that each season has something God wants to teach us.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us:
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”
Every season has a purpose.
But there is another truth about the tree that is harder to ignore.
It doesn’t grow forever.
There will eventually come an autumn when that tree sheds its leaves for the last time.
And so will we.
Each year we celebrate another birthday, another year, another season of life. We may think primarily about getting older, but perhaps we should also think about:
Have I grown in patience?
Have I grown in wisdom?
Have I grown in love?
Have my roots gone deeper into Christ?
Because the goal of our lives isn’t simply to accumulate more years. It is to allow God to use the years He gives us to shape us into people who reflect Him.
Jesus said in John 15:4-5:
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
The tree reminds us that growing takes time. And our spiritual growth is no different. The question isn’t simply how long we have been walking with Christ. The question is whether we are still growing deeper in Him.
The psalmist prayed in Psalm 90:12:
“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
Numbering our days doesn’t mean living fearfully.
It means living intentionally.
It means noticing the season we’re in instead of constantly wishing we were in another one.
It means being grateful for the years we’ve been given.
It means recognizing that some things need to be released.
And it means remembering that our time here is precious.
As I looked at those leaves this morning, I realized something else.
The tree doesn’t seem anxious about the fact that winter is coming.
It simply lives the season God has given it.
Perhaps there is something for us to learn from that.
We don’t know how many autumns we have left.
But we know Who holds them.
The psalmist said in Psalm 31:15:
“My times are in your hand.”
So perhaps we can receive this season – not with fear, but with gratitude.
We can grow where God has planted us.
We can let go when He asks us to let go.
We can enjoy the beauty He places in front of us.
And we can trust Him with whatever season comes next.
One day, every one of us will shed our earthly leaves for the last time.
But for those who belong to Christ, that isn’t the end of the story.
And perhaps that’s why I can look at a deck covered in fallen leaves and smile.
They remind me that another season has come.
They remind me that life is changing.
They remind me to treasure the days I’ve been given.
And they remind me that the God who is faithful in every season is also faithful beyond this one.
(Written by Doug Linser – October 2026)
