Not long ago I was walking along on the campus of Ashland Theological Seminary on a lightly foggy, misty morning. The buildings and trees were cloaked just enough by the fog that they were all a little gray, a little out of focus, a little washed out.
Except for an oak tree that stood out in sharp relief against the gray and the fog. It still had all its leaves, now brown, from last summer, and although I had walked past that same tree many times before, this day it stood out in particularly sharp relief.
But I should correct myself. The leaves were not just brown. They were brown and sepia and umber and auburn and on and on an on. Not just one shade of brown, but many shades and tints and tones of brown all gathered in one awesome little oak tree.
These variations of a color that nobody seems to give a second thought were just wondrous, and stood out so sharply on that tree, that I was just taken aback by them. Even all these different browns were evidence of the hand of our loving God - clues He left that said "I am here, even when you are tired of winter! I'm here, even when everyone wants spring to come! I'm here - and the brown leaves that seemed to you to signal fall and fading and approaching winter five months ago are now reminding you that I was there then, that I've been here all along, that I'll always be here. Take a good look!"
I never would have noticed these browns if the rest of the world had not been a little fogged over that morning. Today, though, and at many times since this sighting on the way, I've gone back in my mind to that oak tree and thanked God that He was there so clearly.
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