PEAK COLORS
The northern states are experiencing what we call “peak colors”. One of the privileges of living north is the fall brings with it crisp air and a landscape of breathtaking color. I began to ponder this changing of season and how symbolic it can be when relating it to life. The following paragraphs briefly describe what takes place as leaves change colors:
The way plants turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar is called photosynthesis. That means "putting together with light." A chemical called chlorophyll helps make photosynthesis happen. Chlorophyll is what gives plants their green color.
As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is how the trees "know" to begin getting ready for winter.
During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can't see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll.
The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves.[i]
The color green is commonly considered the “color” symbolic of life. The “putting together with light” produces the life giving color of green. The Christian believer is full of life when the light of Christ Jesus permeates their life. If we take a look at Ezekiel 47:1-12 we will find there is a time coming…verse 12; Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
The leaves on the trees will stay green; full of life. In the physical as the “light” is removed the leaves begin to turn colors for a very short time until they have withered and fallen to the ground and death has occurred. If you apply this to the spiritual aspect of our life when the light of Christ Jesus is dimmed our life begins to experience “death”. We may think, be distracted or deceived because we see “an array of color” (sin never appears as it is), but in spiritual reality what is occurring is death. Believers, we are to stay “green”, full of the light of Christ Jesus.
Matthew 6:22-23(NKJV)
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
John 8:12(NKJV)
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
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