Autumn passes so quickly I always want to savor every minute of it. It comes and goes so fast that I often feel like I don’t have enough time to get out in it and drink it in. But Sunday was an exception. After church we enjoyed the cool day and the bright sun and the brilliant colors of Michigan. We took more pictures than any family ought to have of themselves. Pictures are a good excuse to go to beautiful places.
(Photo by Lois Pierpont)
We ate dinner and visited covered bridges. Near dusk we hurried back to the Fallsburg Bridge. Lois says evening is the perfect light for pictures. She gathered moments with her camera like a child gathers leaves, autumn evening moments on the water’s edge. Bright leaves reflected on smooth dark water behind the family. Finally it was too dark for any more pictures. We lingered savoring the last few minutes of a near perfect day. It was beautiful. We talked for a while and prepared to part when Lois jumped from the car with her camera. The moon was rising full, huge and bright, right over the peak of the covered bridge. None of us expected it. The surprise thrilled me.
At first sight the moon was shinning through the orange beauty of a huge maple on the hill just beyond the bridge. It was brilliant in the clear October sky, a rising ball of silver, bright and looking large as it always does near the horizon. In the afterglow of the sun I could still see that the bank across the river was a wood with thin white birches, deep green pines and firs, and maples, red, orange, yellow. Round gray stones and boulders formed the base of the long, wooden bridge. As the moon rose its light glowed on the rocks and shimmered on the water.
I filled my hungry lungs with the autumn evening air and let it out steadily. I could see my breath. I stood on the short grass of the park drinking it all in for as a long as I could. Behind me in the dark the girls talked, the young men joked, and the children rowdied. I could have stood and savored the evening for hours. I walked upstream a ways to be quiet, leaned against a tree, and listened to the quiet night. Movement caught my eye. Yellow leaves ran swiftly by on the current of the river.
My heart so pines for autumn and the evening was like a gift from my Heavenly Father. I sensed love in it. It was impossible for me not to worship Him, the Father of Lights from whom all good and perfect gifts descend. My Heavenly Father has expressed his love to me in so many ways. He has through Christ’s death and resurrection justified me by faith. He is preparing me a home in heaven. He has given me his word as my daily nourishment and sure counsel. He has laced my life with beauty. He has given me a family and a family of faith. He has given me loving grandparents and parents and children and brothers and a sister. He has given me a faithful wife and eight children more precious to me than life itself. He has given me good work to do, a commission to fulfill that fills my life with purpose. He dwells Himself in my own spirit in a mystery beyond comprehension. But while I stood under the moon he gave me another little gift that brought special joy to my soul. He sent a flock of geese in a fluttering “V” from the northwest and had them fly honking, their dark silhouettes right across the face of the moon.
It was as if we had a quiet talk, as if he said to me, “How do you like that, Ken.”
I said, “It is beautiful, thank you.”
“I knew you would like it. I want you to know I love you.”
“I love you, too. Thank you. Thank you so much. It is a beautiful world you have made, especially when summer is gone and autumn paints the trees. Thank you.”
Then he chuckled and said, “Wait ?til you see heaven.”
Ken Pierpont
Riverfront Character Inn
Flint, Michigan
October 18, 2005
