Greetings!

As I peer out the window behind my open laptop, I see the first few leaves starting to change colors on the maple tree in my front yard. Fall is here! A flash of deep red can be seen on just a few leaves scattered throughout the sprawling branches still filled with green, but soon it will be a tree full of red leaves.

I learned recently that the colors that leaves change to in the fall are actually the true colors of the leaves of that particular tree. Like the petals of brightly colored flowers, trees actually have very colorful leaves—deep red, bright yellow, and that striking red-orange burst of beauty! In the spring and summer, the leaves of trees are flooded with chlorophyll, which allows them to photosynthesize and also makes them appear green. But when the daylight shortens and the trees begin to prepare for the long winter months, the chlorophyll decreases, and the leaves show their true colors for just a little while before falling to the ground.

My mind was blown when I learned this fun fact! How amazing that the changing of the colors of the leaves in fall isn’t the leaves losing their true green to become something else, but the opposite! In the fall, the leaves are filled with less chlorophyll and are able to show their true colors! The vibrant colors that people (leafers) travel for miles to see in the fall are the true colors of the trees, hidden by life-giving chlorophyll that allows the trees to grow and thrive through the mysteries of photosynthesis. All summer, I appreciate the shade of that leafy green maple in my front yard. But now, I know its true identity: its beautiful deep red leaves are hidden in plain sight, masked only by the vibrant green chlorophyll coursing through their veins.

Which makes me wonder about the true identities of our neighbors, hidden in plain sight, masked only by the very things that allow them to live well. Resilience and strength are tricky things. They are certainly gifts that allow us to endure the hardest parts of life—necessary and essential for our survival. But how often do we mistake strength and resilience for identity? How often do we conflate true identity isn’t just the chlorophyll we need to survive?

Psalm 118 is a song of triumph and joy, celebrating that God’s steadfast love upholds the people always, and giving thanks that when they cried out for help, God was with them and led them forward in victory. Hidden by brash shows of bravery and awash with the chlorophyll of the sheer will to live, the true colors of the lifeblood of the Israelite people course through with God’s steadfast love. When foes were vanquished and victory was declared, others saw just the chlorophyll of human might. But the true identity of their real strength was hidden in plain sight: God’s steadfast love uplifted and upheld the people.

What are your true colors? Are the ways you present yourself to the world your truest self, or are you masking your real beauty with the necessary stuff of survival? What serves as the chlorophyll that keeps you alive and functioning? And what is hiding in plain sight when you can, if only for fleeting moments here and there, set down the burdens of surviving the harshest parts of life—what are your true colors you rarely, if ever, reveal in all their splendor when you aren’t just surviving, but are thriving with joy?

At your core, is God’s steadfast love the bright and vibrant strength that makes your truest identity possible?

As the leaves expose their true colors this fall, prayerfully consider what your true colors are, and wonder the same about your neighbors, too. What beauty is hiding just behind the stuff that helps us survive? What vibrancy might we call forth, if we can figure out how to thrive with joy together? May God’s steadfast love empower us to be our brightest selves and to help our neighbors be their brightest selves, too!

Looking for color,
Pastor Laura