A World with Octobers.

I drove down the road yesterday coming home from a babysitting job, old Taylor Swift blasting through my speakers, the windows down and the breeze in my hair.

The leaves are changing colors. Bright reds and oranges. Soon they'll fall and create mounds of crinkly leaves on the ground.

There's something about this change of seasons that I've grown to love.

I used to absolutely love summer. I loved the warm weather, shorts and flip flops, the beach and the fact that we had over two full months without school. I still do.

But there's something about fall and spring that have become my favorite.

Because when I watch the leaves grow in the spring, bright green with blossoms and blooms, my heart is full and the Lord says, "That's what I've done in you. I've given you new life."

And in the fall when the leaves turn colors and begin to fall he says, "Look, it's your past. All of those things you regret...they can be forgotten. You are forgiven. Wait a little bit longer, you'll start to feel that new life again."

I sit here typing these words and I can only think...

Without Octobers we would miss the colors of the leaves. We would miss bonfires and s'mores and the smell that the smoke from the fire leaves on our clothes. 

We would miss pumpkins and cool fall days just before the weather turns cold. We would miss days spent in our favorite cozy sweatshirt with a good book. 

We would miss so many things. 

So today there's not a whole lot on my mind. But I'm making sure I take the time to thank God for this October. Because there won't be another one just like it. 

He is daily reminding me that those broken pieces of my past are still healing. That all of my sin has been washed clean. 

He reminds me that His love for me is unconditional, unfathomable. 

And every time I see those bright red and orange leaves He says, "I created this. I created the billions of stars. I created the vast fields and the birds and animals. And I said, 'It is good.' But then I created you! And you were very good. I will hold you and take care of you. Your future is in my hand, daughter. You are precious to me. Just like the colors of those leaves, you are unlike any other."

I breathe deeply and let the cool air fill my lungs, grateful for this day He's given me. Grateful that I am made in His imagine and for His plan. 

And I'm especially grateful He's given us Octobers.

~Bailey