Here are two lessons we can learn from a leaf.
1. Changing Cycle
Leaves are great reminders of each season. Spring brings the newness with lime green, Summer brings brightness with dark and vibrant greens, Autumn brings the harvest with orange, red, and yellow, and Winter brings rest with brown. Leaves change but always in the same pattern. It showcases the cycle of life: Birth, Work/Sowing, Achieving/Reaping, and Death.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. - Jeremiah 17:7-8
To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; - Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
2. Variety
Leaves come in a vast variety. But they all have some things in common; you can easily spot a leaf as they all look similar they just have different characteristics, they all have veins, and they all live on plants. Humans are vast in variety but we all have many similar aspects. We are all one race coming from Adam and Eve, created by God, we all have veins, and we all live on Earth. Just as we enjoy the variety of leaves during the different seasons, we ought to praise God for our variety, for the similarities and differences of each person. We weren't created to look and be the same, God created each person by hand to be his/her own unique and special person.
In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. - Genesis 5:1-2
But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand. - Isaiah 64:8
O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” even the night shall be light about me; indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You. For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You. - Psalm 139:1-18
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 is one of my favorite verses....it was the subject of my husband's funeral and on his footstone.....