Return of the Robin

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven."  (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Autumn has long been my favorite season.  I find joy in the simplest things.  Freshly fallen acorns,  the crimson blush of maple leaves, a chill in the air and the pungent scent of wood-smoke evoke nostalgia.

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While sparrows gather on the telephone wires, preparing for their migration to Africa,  robins reappear!  Having largely disappeared into the forest during the summer, the robins return with their sweet song bringing cheer amidst darkening days.  They will remain throughout the winter as a harbinger of longer, lighter days to come.

Harvest is underway here in the Highlands. Yesterday as I drove to a nearby village,  my top speed must have approached twenty-seven miles per hour!  I found myself following not one, but two tractors slowly making their way over Culnakirk, a steep and winding pass.  The tractor-trailer directly ahead of me overflowed with freshly harvested barley,  bits of chaff drifted behind. 

It wasn't until I was on my way home that the Spirit of the Lord drew my attention to the neat rows of straw and stubble left behind in the fields... 

"For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.  The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says
the Lord of Hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
But for you who fear my Name, the sun of righteousness shall rise
with healing in its wings.  You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.  And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, 
on the day when I act, Says the Lord of Hosts."
Malachi 4:1-3

Do you find strange comfort in this passage?  I do!  There seems to be no end of evildoers in the world just now. Knowing his time is short, the enemy is raging.  We long to see the judgment of the wicked.  It will come!

That said, the image of the harvest has a vital word for believers as well.  Jesus Christ has laid down His life as a foundation.  In Matthew 7:24 He paints a picture for us of what it means to build upon the foundation He has laid:

"Everyone who hears these word of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock..."

I must ask myself:  
                "How solid is my 'house'?  Is my faith expressing itself in obedience?"

The struggle is real, but there is GOOD NEWS!  Though we are admonished to 'work out our salvation with fear and trembling,' it is God Himself who works in us both to WILL and to WORK for His good pleasure!  I can ask Him to help me do His will, EVEN WHEN I DON'T WANT TO!  He is faithful to complete the work He has begun in me.  
​                                                                 THAT is GRACE!

One day soon HE who created the robin and sends him to cheer us on through the long winter WILL RETURN IN GLORY! 

                               "...behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me,
                                  to give every man according as his work shall be." 
                                                               (Revelation 22:12)
                                                                 
                                                                  On that day:
                  "Each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it,
             because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work
​                                          each one has done."  (1 Corinthians 3:13)

HOW SHALL WE THEN LIVE?