Having had the opportunity to be a semi-stay at home dad while in seminary I revel at the chance to spend a day with Morgan.  Today I got to take her to swim practice, a privilege usually had by mommy.  At 2 years and 8 months old, Morgan absolutely loves the water.  This was not the story this last summer, a mere 6 months ago.  When Sarah and I would take her to the pool, or the big bathtub as we had to call it, she would usually cling tightly to whomever she was in the water with.  That is why seeing her jump fearlessly into the olympic size pool today was so remarkable.  

At one point in the practice her instructor had poised her on the steps in the water at the shallow end of the pool and stood about 5 feet back beckoning Morgan to leap forward into the water towards her.   Morgan had grown comfortable with jumping into her instructors arms, but this was something new. It took a little more courage to jump into the space between herself and her instructor.  The first 3 times I watched Morgan try to do this she always started enthusiastically.  She would begin jumping up and down in place as her instructor cheered her on.  But every time instead of jumping she would simply sink down into the water and swim towards her instructor.  It was one of the things she was used to.  For a 2 and a half year old she could swim under water pretty good.  But she had never leaped out into the water.  She knew what to do - 'jump like a kangaroo'.  This she did well - over and over - in place, but never out into the space between herself and her instructor.  

When Joshua came to the river he knew God could part the waters and allow a safe passage for His people.  He had seen it done with Moses.  All he did was lift the staff and voila - the waters parted.  But God was calling Joshua to something more - he was to step out into the waters.  As we begin God holds our hand and we are fairly secure in that he will catch us as we jump into the waters.  Yet when we grow God takes a step back and lets us jump into that space between us and Him.  He lets us step into the adventure.  What once seemed terribly frightening is now embraced.  Often we know what and how to do the things we know we should, but we simply jump up and down and never do them.  God is calling us to jump.  To trust and jump. 

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One of the highlights of our Thanksgiving:

What a motley crew!  I love you guys. 

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I love Fall. For some reason, I usually blame it on horrible memory, when the seasons change it always seems like the new season has been only a distant dream that is just now taking shape. But the problem I have always struggled with in Fall and Winter is how to appreciate these seasons when everything dies. I figure that this mass death probably wasn’t an original blueprint in the good ol’ Garden – so should I resist that aesthetic side and mourn for the death that happens to be causing the leaves to transform into beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow?

This Fall while pondering how death (even though it is just trees) can be beautiful it occurred to me that even if this season was not originally intended by our Heavenly Father He has bestowed His Grace upon it so that even in death there is beauty.

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