A dazzling fall panorama brightened the early morning view out my office window a couple of weeks ago. Ominous, dark clouds were the backdrop in the west.  The sun, just rising, was selectively sparkling on two remarkable yellow trees a couple of blocks away.

In front and beneath those trees, thick white frost covered the dark roof of the neighbor’s house.  The burning bushes at our back fence had turned a spectacular cranberry that set off the bright green grass and dark evergreen bushes in the neighbor’s yard.  Right in front of me, the black and grey trunk of our huge Norwegian Maple framed the picture on the left.  

It was the sort of picture one likes to see in a jigsaw puzzle – distinct, well-defined patches of different but complementary and extraordinary colors.  If I had been quicker and a bit more tech-savvy, I could have taken a photo, but the sun went behind a cloud and the colors lost their brilliance. Besides, I was more intrigued by the sequence of events God had set up to make that brief picture possible:

–          We planted the burning bushes across the back fence when we moved in twenty-five years ago.

–          The green grass and bushes were planted two summers ago by the industrious resident who has since moved away

–          Five days prior, there were still too many leaves on the maple tree to allow the sun to brighten the burning bushes

–          Three days after, all the leaves on the maple AND on the burning bushes were lying pale on the ground

–          Five minutes earlier, the sun had not come up yet

–          An hour later, the sun had burned the frost off the neighbor’s roof

–          Ten seconds before and ten seconds after, the sun was behind a cloud.

And, I turned around from working at my desk just in time to catch a glimpse.

Thanks, God.