Let the Leaves Fall

As most of you know, I have a granddaughter, Lexi.  She is already two-and-a-half years old!  I don't know where the time has gone, but it has flown by!

Lexi is an absolute delight, and a beauty at that with long golden banana curls, long lashes that shield striking gray blue eyes, an adorable button nose and the cutest lisp.  To look at her, you would think she would be a girly girl who loved to wear dresses and hair bows.  I may be typecasting here, but you know what I mean.  ;-)

Lexi is anything but a girly girl.  I always tease my son-in-law that Lexi may be the son he'll never have.  lol.

Lexi LOVES the outdoors and all that God's creation has to offer under His great canopy.   On walks, she stops to inspect everything whether it be plant-life or bug-life.  From the time she could walk, her favorite past time is stopping to smell every flower that she happens upon.   But then, she can't resist the urge to pick them.  We are working on letting the flowers stay happy, rooted in the ground.   One such teachable moment, Lexi looked perplexed, showing me the wilted dandelion that she had picked earlier.  I told her that the flower was sad now because it wasn't in the ground anymore.  Now, whenever she sees a wilted flower, she tells me, "Mimi, that flower is sad."  I just love her!!

Aren't Pansies just the happiest looking flowers?  :-)

And flowers aren't the only things Lexi likes to pick up.  She has no problem picking up bugs!  I hide my squeamishness as much as I can.  Eeeek!!  This Mimi does not like bugs!  lol.  Lexi is just fascinated with them.  She gets that from her daddy who at a very young age just loved bugs.  So much so that everyone thought he was going to grow up to be an entomologist.  lol

I love to watch Lexi study anything new.  Her brows furrow and you can see the little wheels in her head turning as she processes and learns all she can from her experience.

And Lexi is sooo observant!  I am always amazed by what she takes away from her observations.

For example, a couple of weeks ago, my daughter and I were out in my front yard with Lexi near my apple tree which had already shed most of it's leaves.  {My granddaughter has been obsessed with our apple tree.   Whenever she comes over she will yell from the car, "Apples!  Apples!"  lol.}  All that covered the ground beneath the apple tree this particular day were the dried up leaves that had fallen to the ground prematurely; the animals already having feasted on the apples that once lay there.

This is not our yard, by the way, but an orchard.  ;-)

My daughter and I were chatting away when Gabrielle noticed that Lexi was underneath the apple tree very carefully picking up a fallen leaf and trying to reattach it to the tree!  She patiently tried several times, and managed to get the leaf to stick on to the end of the branch.

Do you ever find yourself trying to attach the dead leaves of your life back on again?  Is there an emotional hurt that you keep replaying over and over again?  Are there insecurities that you ascribe to yourself again and again?  Are there fears that you have given over to the Lord, only to pick them back up again?  Is there an area where you have died to self, but end up walking in the flesh once again?

I think we can all have a tendency to reaffix a dead leaf or two back into our lives.

Or, like the Oak tree, we carry our dead leaves for a long time...

Early cold weather and early frosts interrupt the process by which oak leaves die and fall from their branches.  Their leaves hold fast to the branches and shield the new buds which will eventually come in the Springtime.

We wear our dead leaves like a shield, don't we?   When we find ourselves in harsh circumstances, be it emotional, physical or spiritual, we tend to stop the process of letting go or dying to self.   Instead, we carry our hurts, and prevent new growth.

Let us learn from the deciduous tree whose leaf drop benefits the tree by reducing water loss, and allows the tree to develop leaves that efficiently use available sunlight during warmer seasons.

When we cast our cares upon our Savior or when we die to self out of obedience and gratitude to the Lord, we will continually drink from the Streams of Living Water and will soak up the Sonlight efficiently, making our joy complete and our fruit abundant.

Truly, truly, I say to you, 

unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, 

it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

John 12:24

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