Growing up in the tropics, I have always admired fall pictures and had planned on getting many such beautiful pictures when I could experience the season. However, when I got the chance, I never wanted to have memories of something that would remind me of such a dark feeling.
As my dad and I were driving toward the university, I commented on how sad everything looked outside. The leaves that were once green and luscious were now brown, yellow, orange and red. They were dying!
Before the class began, my professor asked me how I was feeling about my first fall experience and I told her, it was sad (the experience). She chuckled and asked me why I felt that way, as fall is the favorite season for many people because of the beautiful colors the leaves bring. . . . “But what is beautiful about something that is dying?” I protested.
“The brown, yellow, orange and the red color of the leaves are just signs that life is leaving!”
Growing up in the tropics, I have always admired fall pictures and had planned on getting many such beautiful pictures when I could experience the season. However, when I got the chance, I never wanted to have memories of something that would remind me of such a dark feeling.
Looking back, my first fall experience was a reminder to me that winter was coming. . . .that death was coming. . . .when the trees would be bare and would not even be able to charm a bird.
So, what is truly beautiful about the process of death?
The whole fall experience reminds me of the death of Christ—Him, the Beauty of heaven, the Son of God, the Sinless One Who was betrayed, mocked, whipped, pierced, etc. We rejoice in that? How inhumane is it to find happiness in the suffering of someone as innocent as He?
But there were truly some beautiful moments surrounding the death of Jesus if you spend time to reflect on it. He provided the comfort His sorrowful mother and friend would need when He was gone. He forgave one of His most trusted friends when the friend denied his relationship to Christ. He offered hope for a man who was deemed not worthy to live and forgave those who had persecuted Him.
The moment I find the most beautiful is the moment when He proclaimed, It is finished! He had done everything He had to do physically for my salvation, and this was it. His mission was accomplished.
Because of His death, I have experienced grace and will continue to receive it.
To me, this is the highest form of love that no man—except Him whose essence is love—could give.
This is the beauty I have found in death—more specifically, the death of Christ.
I still have to experience the beauty of fall and have now vowed to find it this season, so I’m praying that God will hold off the snow until we have reached the peak in the fall colors.
Zotu Hizoke, a native of Papua New Guinea, recently completed a master’s degree in Communication at Andrews University.
