I absolutely love Fall. Most especially the beginning of it when the air is refreshed by a crispness that is all together new and welcomed from the heavy heat of Summer.

Really, if I take time to think about it, I love everything about Fall. The turning colors all reflect the magnificence of God's creation. There is something about the earthy colors of turning leaves that help me slow down and reflect, help me enjoy the simplicities of life that really, if you take time to study, are not really all that simple. That's just how God creates - each a masterpiece in it's own right that can not be duplicated or re-created, no matter how hard one might try.

And we do try, ever so hard, at so many things. In all honesty, most of our daily lives are spent running. We run to the fast-paced drum of work, activity, organizations and family functions. We absorb ourselves in a countless array of good things. After all, it's good to be driven, good to work hard, good to serve, good to learn, good to give. Christ even instructs us to do so. But we also spend a multitude of our days trying to "work" them out so well that at the end of it, sometimes we discover the only thing worked out is ourselves. We become so driven in our personal missions, endeavors, or attempts to make a difference that we forget the art of being still, which also, is a direct instruction from the Lord. We forget that the bigger picture in life is the Maker Himself. What good is a piece of artwork if all it reflects is it's self and has no larger meaning than to stand in it's own right? Isn't the design more grand if in it, the very maker who placed it into existence in the first place is seen in it? Simply put, we are made to glorify God and to know Him and be known by Him. It's ever important to work hard at all He has given us responsibility in, but we forget that we also have a responsibility to the Father Himself to know Him, so that others can come to know Him as well. After all, God asks us to "Be still and no that I am God." He beckons us to come to Him, for "He will give us rest." How can any of us possibly know God if we are never still, and how can we find rest, if we never come to Him?

Put your papers down, put the pens aside, stop the car, and stop yourselves. Be desperate for a God who so desperately longs to know you and fill you up. After all, even Christ "Stopped" for a while. He stopped in the midst of a demanding crowd for one blind and desperate man who couldn't even see Jesus stop for Him, but his life was forever changed by it. Christ stopped in the Garden of Gethsemane to pray and seek God's will and not his own. He stopped in the midst of suffering on a cross to reassure a sinner he would be with him that day in paradise, and he stops for each one of us day in and day out. He stops. He waits. He longs. He's looking for us to be still and know that He is God. Don't miss the bigger picture in the simple things you rush by every day. There is a beautiful design in it all that was meant to draw our attention and hearts closer to the one who created us for His glory in the first place.