A couple of months ago I was walking to my car after work and recognized an unmistakable smell; The smell of autumn. It was 45-50 degrees, the sun was beginning to set, and it just smelled like fall. I love that smell for some reason. Maybe it’s memories, maybe it’s the changing landscape but something about that smell seems calming.

I started thinking about what the smell actually was and it dawned on me that it was leaves. And I started thinking about why leaves die and regrow, why they change color, and why do they smell so good in the fall.

God gives us a perfect example of His word in a real world visual. See, leaves bud, the sun gives them light and they grow. They mature and turn in to a vibrant color of green. As the sun moves farther away from the earth and the days become darker the leaves begin to lose their vibrant green. For a few weeks they explode into beautiful yellows, reds, and oranges, cascading through the neighborhoods and forests, indulging our eyes. We actually plan vacations around this! But those bright colors are short lived. Without the sun the leaves lose their food. They begin withering and fall off the tree and within days are brown and brittle.

In those few weeks of colorful explosions and in the days preceding when the leaves have fallen and are brown and brittle they give off this smell I call “fall”. It smells so good, and personally, I love basking in a perfect fall day.

You probably already see the example, we are the leaves, Jesus is the sun, the son of God. When we turn our lives over to Him he changes us. We grow and become vibrant leaves.(Romans 6:4)

We are all sinners(Romans 3:23) and eventually that sin rears it’s ugly head even when we have committed are lives to Christ. Sometimes it’s brief, sometimes we backslide for a while. And during that time sin seems good. We feel good, we change color, we feel as though life is going fine. And for that brief time we look good to the world. We’re the bright reds and yellows, and oranges that attract other non-believers. We have more friends, we can do more things.(Matthew 7:13)

Eventually sin consumes you, you lose your connection with God and He becomes far away. Without food you wither and die.(1 Corinthians 10:3-4) You become brown and britle. Sin smells so good. Those reds, oranges, and yellows are so pretty to look at and on a nice fall day the smells can consume you. However, just like fire with it’s reds, yellows, and oranges, sin will consume you and devour everything turning it to dust.

Here’s the beauty of Christ: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”(1 John 1:9) You know what that means? That means, like a leaf in spring time we can rebud. We grow again! No task required, no 15 hail mary’s, no physical death. Just dead to sin, alive in Christ. Glorious, wondrous grace from the cross. That’s it! If you don’t get goosebumps reading that!

Don’t let sin consume you, don’t let Satan take hold and drag you down. It may feel good right now but in a few days, weeks, months, years, you are going to be hurting. Renew yourself now. Confess your sins, submit to His will for your life and let Him make you whole. You need food to survive and so does your soul. Pick up the Bible read a chapter, and pray to your Father in heaven. He’ll turn you a vibrant shade of green!

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