365 Project Day 309: Gathering the Glory

Canon 5D Mark ll, 16-35 2.8L, 16 mm focal length, 5.6 aperture, 1/400 shutter, 200 ISO

I had an hour. One hour to gather the glory.

We drove to Amicalola State Park today to see the fall color. We have busy schedules and I knew it would probably be the only day we could go. However, our time was short. There were other places to be and things to do so we only  had an hour to walk around the park. ” You sure you can do that? Just one hour?” Chris asked me on the way, knowing me so well. “Yes. Yes, I can do that,” I clearly stated, not knowing at all if I could. I just wanted to go so badly.

When we arrive, I am nearly breathless with anticipation. It was here. The beauty of Autumn all gathered in one place. This is one place I know I can go to find the extravagant glory of this season. Johnny and Chris wait patiently as I stop and pick up the different leaves, examining their shapes, colors and sizes. ” What do you think this one is?” I ask Johnny who is my tree expert. He has spent many days studying them in the woods at home. He loves the trees too. ” Oh, that is a different type of Maple than we have at home”, he comments. Yes, it is a lovely maple, with lacy edges and colors that blended from red to orange to green.
Exquisite.

My eyes scan the path. So much color and texture in one place. I am undone by a God who lines the very places we step with beauty. With fallen feet we shuffle through the delicate glories that have surrendered to the Master’s bidding. All the people, they move through this sea of bitter grace as it clings to their shoes. Bitter in the falling. Grace in the new life promised.

I can feel my heart swelling with each leaf gathered, each image captured. There is an urgency, a drive. I have to hold this somehow, to keep the beauty. I pass my fingers across the maple leaf, it’s edges already curling in it’s frailty. Tears well up inside. ” Please don’t go”, I hear myself whisper. The clock is ticking, I can feel it. For the season, for this life, for my time here. My hour to gather the glories is waning. I stuff them into pockets that I keep ready for these moments.

I want to to hold them, and so I try the only way I know how. With my camera, I focus and capture what I can. In my heart I pray, ” Thank you for this season, this leaf, these moments.” I pray to the God who with his breath speaks it all into being: the colors, the children, our lives, the time. He holds it all. My heart aches for the temporal, but He hold eternity.

Chris reminds me of the time and I finally let it all go. I weep holding the little leaves between my fingers, tears streaming down my face. I don’t want to go.  He looks at me with concern. I don’t understand the passion, the ache. How can I explain it to him?  It burns inside, the desire to stay, to sit here in the glory a little longer. A child passes by laughing and exclaims to her daddy, ” Look, it’s a leaf world!”  Yes, yes. Her joy resonates in my heart. “Yes,” I say out loud. We are supposed to marvel, to be undone by the glory our God creates. We are supposed to laugh, to revel, to cry at the beauty. It is for us. I think He laughs, He revels, He cries too. I think He does that when He looks at us.

So glad I could gather some glory today to hold for a little while and share with you.

1 Peter 1:8 ~”Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,”