How to Use the Mysteries of Fall to Fall in Love with God

“The mind that is not baffled is not employed.”  Wendell Berry
             
"Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?”                       Job 11:7
 
How does God do it?  How does He manage to take a season in which all things are returning to the earth and dying and make it so magical?  What is it He adds to the air to make it so crisp?  How do the turning of leaves make our hearts sing with possibility?  How does He make us forget the winter to come with the promise of pumpkins, bonfires, and crisp apple cider? 
 
Clearly fall is my favorite season.  And I love it for the mystery.  We play with mystery mostly at the end of October as adorable little ghouls knock on our doors demanding candy, but how much more mystery is contained in the wonders of the season? 
 
We think of Job’s questions above as rhetorical.  The answer, of course is “no.” You can’t discover the depths of God.  You can’t discover the limits of the Almighty.  But why has that stopped us from trying?  Why does God’s unknowability mean that we stop trying to know Him, stop wondering at His power, stop trying to find His footprints left on our days? 
 
Heed Wendell Berry’s words and be baffled.  Turn Job’s questions into a challenge.  Can you discover the depths of God?  We won’t know until we try.  Let’s look around us in this, the loveliest of seasons and seek his wonders, open ourselves to awe, actively look for amazement at His creating beauty.  He has enchanted an entire season with glimmers of His presence; surely He’s left them as clues to be followed to find His love more fully in our lives.