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Making a Friend out of Death "Precious in the sight of the
LORD is the death of His saints." Out here in the Desert Southwest, we don't experience fall the way the rest of North America does. The leaves losing their green and gaining their true colors is not as pronounced--one has to seek for such trees in our parts. On our daily walk, we pass our neighbor's land which houses quite an impressive arbor of piņon pines and other trees that don't normally grow in the lower desert. This miniature forest, called "Whispering Pines" is also home to several red tail hawks and at least two golden eagles. Once you've seen an eagle soar and a hawk hunt, you are touched with a divine mystery. For the last couple of weeks, as we have passed by our neighbor's land, one particular tree has stood out as its leaves have been slowly yellowing and then reddening. The bitter cold winds have almost stripped her clean and the stories told in her leaves from the previous season are strewed all over the dirt road and ensuing desert. She's a beautiful tree and yet it made me sad to see her go dormant; to "die" for the wintertime. For the last couple of weeks, as my family and I walk, we have been picking up a gold leaf of hers here and there. For some reason, I felt compelled to keep these dozen or so leaves in a safe place; as if to keep their secrets from being crushed and ground to dust. As we began Advent last Sunday, we placed our traditional wreath on the altar in the chapel. It seemed a completely natural impulse to carefully place several of the leaves on top of the wreath. They were a perfect completion and looked as if they had always been a part of it. Their beauty teaches me that in Christ and because of him, death is now a gift. A part of the Advent theme is the "end of our world" as we know it. As we remove the buffers of illusion that we build around us, and embrace the reality of our death, we are freed to see the true beauty of redemption in all things. Even the leaves of last season, dead and fallen, become signs of hope for a renewed life and a remade world to come; and my soul embraces that season to come when I will lose my green and my original and true colors will emerge. -David
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