Anne Shirley is an expert in the study of delight. L. M. Montgomery’s heroine in the classic Anne of Green Gables series is famous for marveling at the arrival of autumn. She tells the stoic Marilla, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it?”¹ As a Southerner, I could not agree more. My fellow Arkansans long for fall the way Minnesotans long for spring. October is a welcome relief, a deep inhale of cool air after months of stifling humidity. But autumn is more than an escape from triple-digit heat indexes—it is an invitation to join Anne Shirley in expanding our capacity for wonder.

Miraculously Ordinary

In the liturgical calendars followed by many churches, the stretch between the major feasts is called “Ordinary Time.” There is a short stretch between Epiphany and Lent, and a longer one between Pentecost and Advent. October finds itself on the back end of this quiet lull between the fiery falling of the Holy Spirit and the arrival of Christ. But our hurried culture is allergic to lulls. We clear the back-to-school aisles in early August to make room for Halloween costumes, and Christmas decorations wait in the stockroom for their November 1 debut. Ordinary Time is just that—ordinary, unremarkable, and by many accounts unprofitable. But if we train our eyes just right, we find that our extraordinary Creator makes even everyday moments shimmer with beauty. Fall reminds us that life is not only extremes, swinging from blazing summers to frigid winters. It is full of mundane yet glorious in-between times as well.

Marveling at Creation

When we pause and breathe deeply in October, we notice God’s artistry everywhere. He leaves no color unused on His palette. In many parts of the world, we do not just get evergreens or leaves that shrivel from green to brown. We get a patchwork quilt of maple, oak, and birch in blazing orange, yellow, and red. We do not live in a world of only crows and ravens. We have cardinals, orioles, and indigo buntings, creatures whose bright coats look like they came straight from a kindergarten crayon box. Fall gives us the sneaking suspicion that God favors whimsy over mere utility in His created order.

When we practice the art of noticing, we reawaken our hearts for worship. David, a psalmist who spent a great deal of time sitting on hillsides, praised the lavishness of the Lord’s creation in Psalm 65:11–13: “You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy” (ESV). If we tune our ears to the song of creation, we will soon find ourselves singing along, praising the Maker of heaven and earth.

Seasons Point to God’s Unceasing Delight

The changing of seasons is a predictable cycle. For as long as any of us have lived, September has given way to October. But there is a beautiful cadence to the calendar, a rhythm and a rhyme to its repetition. Author G. K. Chesterton suggested that even the apparent redundancy of nature points to God’s youthful delight:

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.²

So when the wheel of time spins round once more and autumn arrives just as it always has, we can whisper back to God with childlike delight, “Do it again.”

As the cool breezes come and the trees burst into the colors of flame, give thanks to the One who gives us Octobers. We serve a God of endless creativity and eternal delight. Let your wonder at creation lead you into deeper worship of the Creator. May this autumn remind us that “Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes.”³

If you liked this article, check out the related resources linked below!

Notes:

1. L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (Bantam Books, 1992), 120.

2. G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy: With Annotations and Guided Reading by Trevin Wax, ed. Trevin Wax (B&H Academic, 2022), 81.

3. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (London: Chapman and Hall, 1857), book 7.

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Author Bio

Tracy Cooney lives in Conway, Arkansas with her husband and three boys. She loves writing for her local church, reading a good book, and watching birds.

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