November is just a week away and fall has been in full swing. It’s been unusually rainy in Memphis but the cooler weather is definitely welcomed. I’ve been anxious for the trees to start turning colors now that it’s cooler. They’ve been slow about it but today the trees have really turned. Faint golden yellows, deep and bright reds, warm browns, burnt oranges and elegant purples have all shown up. I miss the vibrant colors of New England but still enjoy any fall colors.

I have almost a thirty minute commute to work every morning and always take the same route. There is this one particular back road that I love to drive because of its twists and turns, overhanging branches on the road and generally low traffic. The colors of fall are truly beginning to take form especially on this road. As I was driving this morning, the changing of the season made me think of a specific verse – Genesis 8:22

“While the earth remains,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night,
shall not cease.”

I read this verse with new eyes a couple of years ago and have always loved it since. It is where God makes a covenant to never again flood the earth. He goes on in chapter 9 to describe the covenant. But here at the end of chapter 8, God begins His promise. The verses give me a hope and confidence: as long as I am here on earth, every time I sow there will be a harvest, every summer there will follow a winter, every long night spent praying, wishing, hoping there will come a dawn.

Hope is His name; and Faithful is His promise.