TWO friends were trying to express the
thrill of an early April day in Tennessee, when a fresh,
tender, gold-and-silver green mantles the world. "Did you
ever see anything more soul satisfying than such a spring
day?" asked one.
"Yes," said the other, "an autumn harvest
day. It is more soul satisfying, for it is the end for which
this day is made." Then she added: "Did you ever think in
what season of the year the earth was created?"
"No. What season?"
"Autumn-harvest time. When the grass was
created, it was 'yielding seed,' and the tree was 'yielding
fruit.' [Genesis 1:12.] The lower creatures were created
adult as were Adam and Eve. Creation was not a springtime of
germinating seeds, budding leaves, and helpless infant
creatures.
What God does is perfect to begin with.
'Everything that He had made . . . was very good' at once.
[Verse 31.)"
"That's true," replied the other. "Is
that what the Bible means when it says, 'God . . . calleth
those things which be not, as though they were'?"
. To God the end He purposes is real now,
with no trial-and-error process of development. The Spirit
of God brooded-planning, anticipating; and what was brought
forth in creation week was perfect. It is the harvest of
which our God is Lord. Even though sin has brought
imperfection into every phase of nature and human existence,
yet God sees a finished salvation as already accomplished.
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God." 1 John 3:2. To
Abraham God showed a countless multitude of redeemed
posterity figured by the starry host. Of Israel in the
wilderness He could truthfully say: "He bath not beheld
iniquity in Jacob, neither bath He seen perverseness in
Israel: ... according to this time it shall be said of Jacob
and of Israel, What bath God wrought!" Numbers 23:21, 23.
God saw as real then what Israel would be when their
sanctification would be perfected. So God sees us-in Christ.
So may we see ourselves by faith;
October need not be to us "fall"—the
"falling of the year," a melancholy time. Let us look at the
harvest. Let us see next year's dogwoods already with blooms
tipping every twig (they are there, if you look). Next
year's leaves are already on every bough. Next year's lilies
lie in every buried bulb.
The earth was created at the time of what
we now call the Autumnal Equinox. That is capable of
astronomical proof,* though we don't need it. The Bible
shows it was created in harvest, adult, perfect. So is
everyone who is born into the kingdom of God. God visualizes
us now as we may be. If we share His faith, it will help us
to be content with the discipline of life that seems long.
