Give glory to fall's Creator!

        Alrighty.  It's been a busy week, so time to get back on the thankfulness bandwagon.  And oh my, fall just pleads with us to open our eyes and savor the quickly passing beauty, to indulge our senses in the wonderful aromas and tastes, and then to give voice to what should be our constant response of gratitude.
        I loved these words by Shauna Niequist: "Our kitchens are filled with the smells of apples bubbling into sauce, roasting squash, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider, warmth itself. [Amen!  Just throw some pumpkin and chocolate in there and you're pretty much at the gates of heaven...but I digress.  Sorry, back to Shauna.]  The leaves as they spark into wild color just before they die are the world's oldest performance art, celebrating one last violently hued hurrah before the black and white and silence of winter.  Fall is begging for us to dance and sing and write with just the same drama and blaze."
        Amen!  Who crafted every leaf, created every pumpkin, and caused every summer to shed her stifling temperatures for fall's brisk, pure air?  Why don't we let Nehemiah answer that--
        "You are the Lord, You alone.  You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and You preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships You." (Neh.9:6)
        Or as John put it in Revelation 4:11 "Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created."
         Our great and awesome God stained the cardinal a bright crimson (still my favorite bird--a love letter from God, if you ask me--so whenever I glimpse one, I always respond--"I love You, too, Lord!")--

         And our Creator and Redeemer just as surely painted yesterday evening's sunset--

       Not to mention the mighty and awesome One who even gave us the gift of dogs.  Mr. B relaxing after a bracing walk in autumn's wonderful air--

        A.W. Tozer says that "we make a mistake if we do not learn to admire God in all things, great and small; for a new rich mine would be opened in our consciousness if we could learn to recognize God in nature as well as in grace!"
        So thank You, Lord, for Your magnificent creation--all a pale but lovely reflection of Your perfection, beauty, and glory.  Thank You for autumn's countless treasures from sights to smells, every single one a gift from our great and good Giver.  Oh might we notice each one of Your gifts and then immediately turn to You in thanksgiving and praise.
        And by the way, can I just add--if fall can be this wondrous, can you even begin to imagine heaven?  Wow.  Yet another reason for hope and rejoicing!
       Give Him the glory today!
       To God--our extravagantly creative and generous Painter, Sculptor, Chef, Author, Architect, Designer and on and on--be all the glory.