In 1955, when I was but eight years old, I was walking through the woods up in Connecticut with my Great-Grandmother. It was autumn and the trees were rich and bright with color from God's paintbrush.

I remember Grandmother talking to me about the beautiful leaves and about how, when the green disappeared and they changed into bright colors, it meant that they were dying. She told me that they were no longer getting the food that kept them green and so they became bright and beautiful before floating to the ground and becoming crisp and brown.

Grandmother explained to me that the fact of the leaves falling from the trees was why people often referred to autumn as "fall". She also explained that the leaves from different varieties of trees turned different colors.

Now, Grandmother was getting old, she was over 80 at this time and she knew, somehow that her days here on the old earth were limited. That she would soon be going to her eternal home to be with the Lord and those who had gone before. She often talked about this at home too.

Grandmother continued to explain to me that she felt that the colors of the leaves as they died was God's way of showing us that death was beautiful and there was nothing to fear. As we walked along the path she began to sing: "Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me. See by the portals, he's waiting and watching, watching for you and for me. Come home, come home; ye who are weary come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling. Calling, Oh, sinner come home."

This was a hymn that Grandmother had sung to me for as long as I can remember. You see I grew up in a home with four generations until Grandmother went to be with the Lord when I was twelve. Many lessons I learned from that experience but never fully appreciated them until I became an adult and had my own family. Now those beautiful lessons come back to me.

Grandmother passed to heaven quietly in 1959 at the age of 88: Although she was at home, she was in a diabetic coma but for one moment she opened her eyes, smiled at us all and sighed. Such a precious moment we all shared that evening. It was October and the day after her birthday. The leaves were again painted by God and I remembered that day several years before when we walked through the Connecticut woods and I learned a quiet lesson.

Jackie McCormick© 2000

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"A Quiet Lesson" Is By Jackie McCormick © 1999/2001.
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"Softly and Tenderly"