| Autumn leaves |
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Kicking through the leaves  As a little child I loved to walk through the fallen autumn leaves, kicking them as I went. My mother did the same when no-one was looking! I think of her whenever I see fallen autumn leaves. I recall an old song beginning ‘When autumn leaves begin to fall.’ Its haunting melody and words focused on painful memories of a lost romance. ‘My September love’ did the same! How nostalgic! Did you know that nostalgia is not what it used to be? But some things do stir us deeply about life’s realities. People in today’s over-marketed ‘must have’ world with expectations of film star beauty or muscle man contours should remember they are merely human beings on life’s journey from the cradle to the grave – and beyond. Are we ‘worth it’? ‘You’re worth it’, we are told. All those old age wrinkles and blemishes must never spoil our Greek god or goddess appearances! Really? What do we really deserve, and how much are we really worth? Chemically, not much. In the estimation of a celebrity mad world, very little. To our loved ones, a lot more – but they, like us, are also just passing through: their opinions will one day be silenced too. The ‘whole world’ Jesus said that you are an ever living soul. The ‘you’ that really is ‘you’ will live on when your body is no more. One soul is worth infinitely more than all the world can grow, mine, make, invent, market or sell. Christ asked ‘What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?’ (Mark 8:36). A pauper owning 50p is richer than the richest dead man. The wealthiest person in the graveyard loses eternally without Jesus Christ as his Saviour and Heaven as his home. Like those autumn leaves Like those autumn leaves, our bodies will fall into the dust. But our eternal souls, separated by our sins from a holy God, will eternally be blessed in Heaven or cursed in Hell. Our rebellion against God deserves His judgement, but by personal faith in Jesus we escape and receive eternal life. Because sinless Jesus died, bearing our sins and punishment, and rose again we can know God’s forgiveness. We must admit all our wrongdoing, turn from it, and ask Jesus Christ to save us and live within us. Jesus said ‘I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am you may be also’ and ‘I am the way, the truth and the life: no-one comes to the Father except by Me.’ (John 14:2 & 6). Come to Him for real life – eternal life! Gerard Chrispin |
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