Right now there are still a lot of leaves on the trees in my neck of the woods. The color is vibrant in places but there is a noticeable fading in others. The wind is whipping up a fallen leaf stew swilling over the ground and sidewalk. Bright orange and red leaves that have just fallen make their bed next to brown and crumpled ones that fell a week ago.

I’m waiting for the end to come. Finally the trees will do their last shake-dance and then I’ll rake and batten down the hatches for winter. Before I do I’ll look up through the trees searching for that one special leaf that is still there. Holding its limb in a vice grip it just will not give up. It turns brown and withers but it continues to cling to the tree even in the dead of winter.

The “tenacious leaf” I call it. I admire its bull dog stubbornness. Maybe that is because it reminds me of a certain kind of faith. I used to have a poster that said; Faith is not faith until its all you are holding on to. When no human reason is left to believe, faith still clings to God like that tenacious leaf.

An Old Testament guy with the odd name of Habakkuk said it best: “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield not food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls-yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”

I don’t know what you are believing for dear Readers, but keep it up. Hold on tight through the winter. Spring will follow and new life will burst forth from the tree. The tenacious leaf will see it and know for sure that its faith was not in vain. Neither is yours!