Bible

The Sacrifice of Leaves

Over the month of October and into November, the trees in Nova Scotia made us notice them. It was a good year for colour with lots of variation in vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows. It’s not hard to appreciate the satisfying beauty they create but what we can also appreciate is how marvelous those little accessories are. An average size tree may have a couple hundred thousand leaves! Over the summer each of those leaves combined sunlight with air and water to create sugars for the tree, allowing it to grow and produce fruit, and store up energy for the next year.

Once the leaves fall off the tree, they take with them excess nutrients that were absorbed from the soil (like calcium and potassium), which are then released back into the soil as they decompose. Their one short wonderful season of life is spent absorbing light and air and water to produce something sweet and life-giving, and then given back to the soil and its creatures in a way that produces no waste.

Trees can teach us so many life lessons, but at this time of year I find that it is a reminder to think about the way I live my life. At the end of the year, can I look back and see ways that my life has efficiently used the light, air, and water available to me to grow so that my efforts not only enrich myself, but also my community? Are the things that I do creating waste or beneficence?

When I walk along a trail layered with the warm colours of fallen leaves, I know that over the winter they will gradually disappear as they are broken down by tiny organisms, but the process will begin all over again in the spring. This is an encouraging thought! Winter is a good time to rest and prepare for another opportunity.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Romans 12:1-2

What can Snow teach us about God?

There is nothing like a snowfall for improving one’s mental health in the winter. For one thing, when snow falls it creates a kind of white noise, cancelling out other noises and absorbing sound waves, making things peaceful. It covers up everything in a blanket of white that stops your brain from being overwhelmed by the usual abundance of visual distractions. It has a calming effect (as long as you are not worried about driving in it or shovelling it). Hopefully if there is enough of it you might get the gift of a day off at home. It is a reminder of the beauty and intricacy of Creation around us, especially if we live in a city with little natural beauty in it. Who can not appreciate the perfection of a little star-shaped crystal landing on our mitten?

Snow doesn’t always fall in perfect little flakes: the temperature affects how it forms and sometimes it will come down like little needles, or flat plates and sometimes it will come down in clumps of flakes that have collided and stuck together. It forms around a speck of dust or pollen in the atmosphere, and because of the shape of water molecules, when they join together it forms six sides. Changes in temperature as it falls through the air dictates how it will grow.

God is never a God of just ordinary, He is a God of the astonishing.

Snow has some pretty remarkable benefits for our little planet too. Since snow is comprised of 90-95 percent air when it piles up, it is a great insulator. This protects the soil and all its micro-organisms from extreme temperature changes, and evaporation, and makes it possible for lots of little animals to stay warm. Snow reflects solar energy back into the atmosphere helping to regulate the temperature of the earth, and stores up fresh water that is released later in warmer weather filling rivers and reservoirs slowly. Many people in the world today depend on the melting of mountain snow pack for survival.

God is a God of care for all and of long-term planning.