It’s October in northern Michigan, which means never knowing what to expect when you wake up in the morning, or even from minute to minute. Yesterday was warm and sunny; today is cool, overcast and windy with just a hint of mist in the air. It’s the nature of Autumn; a season of change and transition, moving from days of sunshine and time at the beach to the quiet and cold of long winter days.

It’s actually my favorite time of year for a number of reasons. First and foremost is God’s artistry seen in the changing colors of the leaves, riotously glorious and luminous when the sun shines brightly. Drive anywhere in the area and you will be greeted with vistas of reds, oranges and yellows against the dark green of the pines. It is Heaven’s gift to enjoy and gladden the heart before the long cold winter.

Autumn also brings familiar activities. Football is king, played in a hundred places, bringing neighbors and friends together to support the local teams. We live within hearing of the high school football stadium and can listen to the announcer and crowd from our own front porch, a comforting reminder that it’s Friday night and the team is playing at home.

Autumn also means trips to the cider mill for cold cider and warm donuts, going to the pumpkin patch to choose your jack o’lantern and perhaps get lost in the corn maze. It’s a time when canning, freezing, or cold storage is preparation for when the fields are resting under the snow. It also means pumpkin spice, a thing to which I have no objection other than it shows up in every place imaginable.

But autumn is also brief and passing. It is the time when nature is preparing for a period of rest. Autumn must be enjoyed at the moment, for the moment doesn’t last long and will soon be gone. When the night begin to have a distinctive chill in the air and frost warnings are issued, autumn is telling us to enjoy the last vestiges before it is gone, not to be seen again until next year.