Fall is my favorite season of the year. NCAA football and basketball, bonfires with the youth group and hot coffee on cool morning are all among the things I love about fall, by my very favorite thing about my very favorite season is the changing of leaves. This year, I was blessed with good timing. A business trip took me to Vestal, NY. I arrived at the peak of God’s color wheel for that part of the nation. It was gorgeous. The wonderful thing is that my return from this trip brought me back home for the pristine days of Northeast Tennessee’s peak. I enjoyed it so much. As I took an evening to drive through the mountains and enjoy the beauty of creation, the irony of what was happening hit me – the beautiful leaves were actually dying! At first, this was a tragic thought. Why is it that this marvelous wonder of creation is reserved for death? Then, the intrinsic value of this symbolic foreshadowing came into view. Many of us see death as the end; something that is dreaded, feared or at best a relief to pain. Perhaps God wants us to see the beauty in death, for only in death are the greatest things in life experienced. Death on the cross – salvation for mankind : : : Death to self – abundant life in Christ : : : Death in this world – eternity in heaven. Wow!