I came to the realization today that death is just as beautiful as life if you look at it from the right perspective. The gold and red, crinkling leaves that cling desperately to the trees are beautiful. The ones already fallen and browning are also beautiful - holes and all. Amid these dying beauties were flowers in full bloom: pink and red near the prayer chapel and purple (again) on the pathway toward Wengatz. Just as the blossoming flowers were beautiful in their vividness of life, the leaves were beautiful in their dying. That is what we are called to: beauty in life and death.
I sat on a large rock next to the purple flowers. I just sat and appreciated the beauty. It was effortless to fall more deeply in love with my Creator when I simply took a moment to slow down, to be still. Sure, when I was walking I saw the beauty, too, but there was not as much peace, hope, and reassurance in it as there was when I let it overwhelm and encompass me. We must do that: let God's glory overwhelm and change us. If we stopped long enough to gaze at His glory and beauty, no other response would be possible.
We can accomplish a lasting beauty of life and death, but not on our own. We must be still. We must seek God. We must seek Him first. It is the dying that is beautiful in us. Dying to ourselves so that Christ may live in us. We, as the leaves, become most beautiful as we die.
