It’s autumn.

Trees swap dark green leaves
for glowing tints of yellow, orange and red.
Falling leaves drift through the air,
crunch underfoot,
play swirling chasies in gusts of wind
and gather around windfall apples
that delicately scent the chill, autumn air.

Such a beautiful array of colour
to brighten up cold October days!

A scientist on TV assures me
that these bright autumn hues
have been inside the leaves
all summer long,
blocked from our eyes
by greenness that flourishes
in spring and summer sunshine.

I wonder if God, in a sense,
is like those beautiful autumn colours –
always there,
absolutely everwhere,
but blocked, somehow,
from our vision?
Reaching out to us
through a hug from a friend,
a helping hand from a colleague,
a smile from a stranger?

Are we, maybe, like the apostles
on the road to Emmaus
who walked with Jesus
but something prevented them
from recognising Him?
In the same way
that something prevents us
from seeing glowing, glorious colours
that lie hidden
inside very ordinary-looking green leaves?

© Claire Murray, 21st October 2018