Gone

 

A girl walked the forest for a time one warm fall afternoon. She was looking for the perfect fallen leaf. It must be bright red with a hint of orange, without blemish or fold, and equally proportioned on each side. She looked and looked, yet when her back was sore from bending over to pick up the leaves, and her hands were covered in the dry forest earth, she had come away without finding a single perfect leaf. Frustrated she turned herself toward home, still looking along the edge of the forest path as she headed back again the way she had already passed. Her legs now tired from the long hike, she came to the edge of her yard, nearly home. As she walked up the footpath to her front door she noticed it there, right in front of her home, blown from from the old maple tree right there in her yard, swaying in the breeze t'was the perfect leaf. Ideal to all her design of perfection and hers finally. If only she had looked at home before she had spent her time abroad, she would have found it long time ago.

 

Fall is a curious time; this year more then any I suppose. We watch all around us as the glowing bright flowers of summer bend and shrivel at the first frost, and they are gone. We see the squirrels pack for their lives as they hope to survive the coming cold months. Our special focussed time with our children turns back into the mundane week after week routine. Yet we joy in the fall. We rouse at its colour, though the flowers are gone. We breathe a deep breath of fresh air in the cool morning, though the frost steal our warmth. The birds hide in the south from the ice, yet we anxiously await the first thick white snowfall. Fall will soon be gone.

 

 

Things and people come and go. It doesn't take long. Sometimes before hello can even come out of your mouth, it's time for goodbye. We rest in the comfort of the calm sea of today, yet tomorrow's storm may leave us little we can recognize. It does hurt, the sever, as we rebalance at the loss. Is it pain; or shock; or is it just that something is gone?

Does anything ever go alone? Some take our heart, some take our thoughts, some take our future, and some things take our money. Nothing ever leaves alone.

 

Some things will never be gone. Some are just a few days away from being gone forever. "Someday" offers us great hope. Someday sorrow will be a meaningless word. Someday there will be no need of forgiveness, for heartache will be forgotten. Pains will be gone. Though we be forever debtors, debt won't exist to pay. There will be no masters and slaves, all will be servants of the Master server. Cold will be gone. Loneliness will be gone. Death will be a conquered disease, cured and gone.

(Arabella playing dead…)

 

Yet, you will remain. You will never be gone. You were made thus, to exist forever. You have a beginning, but no end. Though, when all is said and done, where will you have gone? There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God. Live forever there. Yet, there is a place for those who reject His supply of rest and peace. I beg you, forsake Him not. I beg you, make today the day you trust His Son Jesus Christ!

 

My sins are gone. I mean GONE! I mean God said they're gone. That's the power of the cross and blood of Christ. Maybe you have a past you wish was gone, that He can do. Maybe you have hurts you would fade, His love has just that and more to offer. He is the cure to your pain. He is the only consuming fire with the power to make evil of this troubled world gone. Take Him your trouble, leave it, and it will be gone. Cast all your worries on Him, and He will take them away. Burdens are lifted at Calvary! Leave yours to Him today, and it's gone.

So many temporal things woo our eyes. Each would steal but a moment, but soon, and with enough moments, those little thieves will have taken your entire offering and spent it on air. And when your grey head lay down its last time upon your death bed, you will gasp at all that is gone. So much lost for the moment's pleasure gained. So much investment in that which must be left under the sun. Spend life on this world and with this world your life will be gone.

 

Hope is not gone. He ever liveth. Trust well earned, love deposited and time suffered, the Lord God is never gone. His love ever remains for those who will trust in Him. No matter how much your effort to find sufficiency elsewhere, you cannot escape Him, the only fulfillment. As that girl who sought and sought for the perfect leaf, look now to perfection awaiting right at your heart's door. He's been waiting there all along.

 

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 

– Col 3:1-2

 

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 

– 2 Cor 4:18

 

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

– Matt 6:19-21