Fall Colors

Who hasn't felt the exhilaration of a looking up into a bough of graceful red autumn leaves? I've enjoyed this sight several times this Fall season already. There are few sights that bring a sense of refreshing seasonality like Autumn leaves do. But just recently I learned that this feeling of abundance at Fall has a much deeper source than just harvest festivals and giant pumpkins. This feeling comes from a gut response that human beings have towards the color orange. Orange is associated in the human mind with abundance, plenty, deliciousness. It has been a hallmark color of Fall for decades, but those feelings weren't invented by marketing companies selling Thanksgiving decorations. That response to orange in the human mind is much older. It's fascinating how our minds are wired to respond to certain colors. And it partly reveals how our choices are sometimes affected by our subconscious rather than just our conscious thinking. Our brain is a marvelous organ, but it also has blind spots. This thought lends new impact to God’s message through Isaiah in Isaiah 55:8-11: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” God’s thoughts aren’t affected by the fickle influences of this world. His thinking and actions are so beyond our noblest thoughts, our highest aspirations, our most astute logic, that we don’t have the slightest chance of fathoming them. But this is a great comfort to us. We know that the One at the helm is capable to see us safely through any challenge despite our inadequate human reasoning. God is in charge.