This time of year, leaves flutter everywhere. You rake and rake and rake. It is hard to believe that it wasn’t that long ago that you rejoiced to see the new growth on the trees ushering in spring. Now, sadly, the leaves have fallen.

These leaves represent, in so many ways, the days of our lives. Just when we think that we have peaked, the leaves of our strength begin to fall away. It is as if God were pointing out that He gives us even what we think we possess, and that He can make us do without these possessions anytime He wants. Our strength and even our days are measured by, and limited by, Him.

Adoption has a way of exposing the weaknesses of both the parents and the children. Our adopted children are like the leaves that have, of necessity, fallen away from the tree which supported them. It may be that they were orphaned by death of their birth parents or that they were given up for adoption by birth parents who sought better lives for them. They did not choose to lose their birth parents, but now they are stripped away from them.

The adoptive parents, for their part, move into adoption with the expectation of a brilliant green shade of summer, hoping that their adopted children will receive their love and that a forever relationship will be rooted. All too often, when there are problems in the relationship, the adoptive parents feel dejected and like leaves strewn across a lawn. They wonder if there is any hope at all for their children to attach to them.

In all of this, we need to remember that there are seasons to life. Not only are the seasons cyclical in nature, but seasons can be cyclical in our lives as well. As we move from year to year, we learn from our mistakes and seek to draw closer to the One who created us. In His grace, He allows us to compensate for failures and weaknesses in our lives. Our children also pass through these phases, and they grow in their relationships with us and other children.

It is this hope of another season that encourages us. Even as we plod along in the years of our lives, we still look forward to the renewal that will ultimately be ours as God gives us the new bodies that He has planned for us. Our adopted children need to see the hope that God gives us, and this will stimulate them to not give up even when things look the most difficult. Hope is what bonds us.

What gives you the most hope in this season of your life? Please feel free to comment on this blog in the area below.