Pawpaws and Persimmons
“Good morning, fall!” As I came down to the kitchen to make breakfast early this morning I discovered several of my children already outside, welcoming the arrival of fall in this way. One girl came in saying, “It feels colder out!” (On a day destined to reach the upper eighties this was a nice thought, if unencumbered by reality.)
Taking their cue, I added a few extras into our day to celebrate the change of seasons. My little guys decorated paper cornucopias with fruits and I read them a book about autumn during our preschool time. Later in the afternoon, when I needed to be with Jonathan for his on-line Writer’s Workshop class, I sent the others out on the farm for a fall scavenger hunt. Their assignment was to find 10 or more signs of fall and to fill a basket cornucopia with fall flowers, berries, and other wild goodies. They came back laden with paper bags of treasures, including a new fruit we had not discovered before. At first we thought they were wild pears, but upon investigation the kids learned that they had found pawpaws, that sweet fruit so loved by the pioneers. Our early persimmons are also out, but the later ones won’t ripen until the first frost.
I so love the seasons. Fall is such a great reminder of God’s provision for us in every way, and of order in a world that often seems chaotic. Our garden is in its last crazy fling of producing tomatoes and herbs with abandon, but soon they will slow and stop. (Abandon also describes what my little gardens look like at this point, after weeks of neglect from this gardener.) As we watch the corn and soybeans in our fields dry to the correct moisture percentage, we think again how just as our tenant farmer is dependant on Him for the right amount of rain and sunshine, so we are dependent on Him for everything we need to live and breathe every single moment.
I Chronicles 29: 11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, And You are exalted as head over all.
Taking their cue, I added a few extras into our day to celebrate the change of seasons. My little guys decorated paper cornucopias with fruits and I read them a book about autumn during our preschool time. Later in the afternoon, when I needed to be with Jonathan for his on-line Writer’s Workshop class, I sent the others out on the farm for a fall scavenger hunt. Their assignment was to find 10 or more signs of fall and to fill a basket cornucopia with fall flowers, berries, and other wild goodies. They came back laden with paper bags of treasures, including a new fruit we had not discovered before. At first we thought they were wild pears, but upon investigation the kids learned that they had found pawpaws, that sweet fruit so loved by the pioneers. Our early persimmons are also out, but the later ones won’t ripen until the first frost.
I so love the seasons. Fall is such a great reminder of God’s provision for us in every way, and of order in a world that often seems chaotic. Our garden is in its last crazy fling of producing tomatoes and herbs with abandon, but soon they will slow and stop. (Abandon also describes what my little gardens look like at this point, after weeks of neglect from this gardener.) As we watch the corn and soybeans in our fields dry to the correct moisture percentage, we think again how just as our tenant farmer is dependant on Him for the right amount of rain and sunshine, so we are dependent on Him for everything we need to live and breathe every single moment.
I Chronicles 29: 11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, And You are exalted as head over all.
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