Fall Celebrations

This week marks the beginning of fall. To celebrate this, Jess took the kids from our house to Tifft Nature Preserve, an urban nature center here in Buffalo. In the fields and forests they explored and celebrated the changing of the seasons.

In upstate New York we are sure to make the most of this time. Each weekend from Labor Day on into November, you can find an apple, pumpkin, harvest, or some other fall festival. These festivals play an important role in our current culture. Before the cold winds of winter bar us inside, these festivals give us a chance head outside. We soak up autumn's beauty and bounty, as well as the last bits of warmth the sun sends our way. However, these celebrations are also important because they link our current culture back to an earlier time, when our dependence on the harvest was more tangible and serious.

If we go back early enough in time, we find another set of fall festivals that serve as a link to our current culture; the biblical festivals of Trumpets, Atonement, and Shelters (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot). These festivals serve as tangible and serious reminders of our dependence on God and the redeeming work He is doing in our world. Check out what they're all about in Leviticus 23 & 16.

So this fall let's celebrate the beauty and bounty of the harvest, but let's also make time to seriously consider the Source of that beauty and bounty. As we do this, may our hearts be filled with true thanksgiving.