Autumn Leaves

The recipe for the brightest of fall colors on any given autumn depends upon the right ingredients. The endless fluctuations of sunlight, temperature, and soil moisture are important environmental factors impacting the quality of color of the deciduous woodlands. These major influences vary from year to year and explain why no two autumns are exactly alike. As late September rolls around the biochemical processes in the leaf undergoes coloration changes.

During the spring and summer, the production of chlorophyll dominates and masks the other pigments present in the green-looking leaf. As the days grow shorter in the fall, chlorophyll production slows down, and the xanthophyll (tints of yellow) pigments and the carotenoid (tints of orange) pigments and the anthocyanin (tints of red and purple) pigments become more visible.

Since xanthophylls and carotenoids are always present in the leaves during the growing season, the yellow and orange pigments are fairly constant every year. With the various tints of red and purple, anthocyanins are developed in the autumn, and color radiance is subject to sugar (glucose) trapped in the leaf and lots of sunshine.


Eventually, at the base of the leaf stalk a layer of cells begins to form called an abscission layer (which means the tree is literally cutting the leaf away from itself). The purpose of this layer is to stop all flow between the tree and the leaf. Once the blockage is complete, the connecting tissues are sealed off; the leaf is ready to fall. Unlike the evergreens (pines, spruces, firs) the leaf-shedders have no way of protecting its vulnerable leaves during the harsh winter so it sheds them, providing nutrients to the surrounding soil.

With the right conditions, life changes without God can be as beautiful as the brilliant colors painted on the canvas of the deciduous forest. The world is at awe and marvels at your accomplishments. You shine forth like the brightest of the fall colors. But it is short-lived at best. In a moment your leaf is severed from its source. Gravity takes over; you fall like so many leaves before you. And the once beautiful leaf dancing in the wind is now decaying on the ground.

The ancient prophet Isaiah said this about a life without God in it. We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away (64:4).

The only way for us to reach an everlasting true color potential is to be a part of the tree of life. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6). What branch are you dangling from? <><