When is the first day of fall?

 

 

I made a mistake this week when I told someone that the 21st was the
first day of autumn.  It seems to me that the seasons have generally
changed on either the 20th or the 21st, but this year is different
(for reasons I've not taken time to investigate).  Whether autumn
officially began yesterday or today appears to be a matter of dispute.
Those who take their position with the 22nd say that fall arrived at
11:09 p.m., so it's safe to say that today (the 23rd) is the first
full day of autumn.

Fall might be my favorite time of the year.  Spring is nice, too, but
there's something about the crispness of the air, mounds of pumpkins
at roadside stands and beautiful colors in the woods that tug at my
heart.  Yes, I know cold weather is ahead, but those few weeks of
autumn make me want to spend more time outdoors breathing in deeply of
the freshness of nature.

The color in the woods is a forerunner of the event that has given the
name to the season.  After the leaves turn colors, they soon release
their hold on the tree limbs and fall to the ground.  I was interested
to learn that "fall" is no longer used in Britain to refer to the
season.  Here in the U.S., however, we understand what is meant.  What
once occupied a lofty place in the forest canopy has now descended to
the floor below.

While the first day of fall is eagerly anticipated by many, the first
day of "the fall" was a dreadful day.  Not many specifics are given,
but it may be worth a moment or two of reflection.

In their earliest days, Adam and Eve, the first man and woman on
earth, enjoyed an idyllic existence.  The Garden of Eden was a place
planned and planted by the Lord Himself.  Here's one statement of the
beauty of that spot: "And out of the ground the Lord God made every
tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.  The tree
of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:9).

I've been blessed to observe some beautiful scenes in nature.  Forests
are robed in vivid color and detail, and individual trees stand as
silent witnesses to the majesty and power of God.  We can only imagine
how awesome Eden must have been!  The temperature, I suspect, was
always ideal; provision was made for their every need.

Enter Satan with all of his fierceness and deceit.  Promising the
ability to become like God by disregarding God's prohibition, Satan
led Eve and Adam to break the one law given to them.  That was "the
fall", the day in which (to use Milton's terminology) paradise was
lost.  Immediately these deceived ones realized how great was their
fall (see Genesis 3:16-19).

The same happens with any of us when we turn away from the life God
sets before us.  "But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our
unrighteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isaiah 64:6).  It has
been said that "sin will take you farther than you wanted to go".
Proof of that is found in God's word and in lives each of us know.

God created us to occupy a lofty position in the canopy of His
creation.  When we follow Satan's will instead of the Creator's, we
experience the first day of the fall.

Timothy D. Hall