Today is a true, North Florida November day.

The air is cool, but not cold. An overcast sky shields the sun but does not really promise rain. Showers of leaves cascade from the oaks in the sporadic breeze, and the satsumas are ripening.

I love November!

November is the North Florida season of color. Grapevines run like yellow streaks of lightning through every group of trees I pass. Poplars, worried about winter, have already lost their leaves, but the crepe myrtles slowly catch fire before they drop their bounty. Hickory trees, dogwoods, and sweetgum join the array of color with yellows and oranges and reds. November is not a time to go barefooted, though. Sweetgum balls have damaged many an unshod foot.

Pinecones litter yards, offering themselves to children for Christmas decorations.

And now the sun peeks out.

November is a month of harvest, of bounty, of Thanksgiving. It sums up the year with a flourish before winter is upon us. On any day, one may see the entire gamut of seasons as fronts move through and chilly mornings get wrapped in warm afternoons. The tasks of each day are ruled by the length of the diminishing light .

November is like life.

Days of cloud and rain are chased by sunshine. Our moments drop like fall leaves, and struggles and difficulty often litter our lives. Hurt and loss shadow,

but still the colors of God’s grace run rampant throughout our days,

if we can only see.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Isaiah 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

Photos – Autumn Colors, Beth Mims