When the calendar flipped to October, I began to look for glimpses of the beautiful showy fall display of changing leaf color. Even though the timing can vary greatly where we live, most often the first hints of color begin by the end of the first week of the month. I could only see green by the middle of the month this year. Temperatures were unusually warm, but pumpkin spice lattes were in abundance and reminded me that the leaf colors I so enjoy should have started.

Days slipped by and as the end of the month approached, a very few hints of color began to appear. As I turned the calendar to November most of the trees in my yard are still more green than any other color. I cannot recall a year when the leaf color has been so late and now that it has abruptly become chilly, I wonder if the leaves will be blown from the trees while they are still green.

But after reading a scientific article on our changing leaf color, I realized that the color had been there all along. I just couldn’t see it.

The article revealed the vivid yellow and orange colors of fall leaves have actually been there throughout the spring and summer, but I/we simply haven’t been able to see them. The deep green color of the chlorophyll that helps plants absorb life-giving sunlight was hiding the colors. Somehow I had never learned that along the way.

The vivid colors I was longing to see could only be seen when the trees began to break down the green pigments stored in the leaves and shuttled them into the roots for reuse in the spring. Only when the leaves began to lose life-giving chlorophyll would I be able to see the stunning colors. Only then would the color be visible to the human eye.

As I finished reading the article, I could not help but smile at discovering how much this says about our Creator. He knows the colors are always there and guess what? I have no doubt He can see the colors as easily as He can see the lush green leaves.

We are the ones with limited eyesight.

So often in this life we fail to see or are unable to see the unseen in the spiritual world. We are to live by faith and trust in what we cannot see. But I wonder how many other evidences of His handiwork in creation are unseen by our eyes and unknown to us.

How many things is He waiting for us to discover and delight in?

How often must He want us to expand our view of His amazing designs?

How many spiritual applications can we discover with this new information? What else would He delight to have us discover?

Are we taking in the nutrients we need for life-giving sustaining growth? Are they being absorbed deep within us to sustain us during hard times when the winds of adversity blow relentlessly?

May the Lord grant us glimpses of the unseen world as we set aside the distractions of the clutter of this life.