All I can Be

Watching the green and changing leaves shimmer in the morning breeze outside the prayer window, I catch glimpses of a soft grey sky beyond. Growing up in southern California, there was always a slight ‘feel’ to autumn – liquid amber trees became resplendent in shades of gold and the air became nippy – but my first real encounter with autumn leaves was a year studying at Stirling University. I couldn’t get enough of the vibrancy of the season and spent many hours wandering through woods round the Wallace Monument, breathing in the beauty. I still love this season which is opening up to us now, despite the fact that it heralds the frosts and freezes of winter.

I read a quote from Elisabeth Elliot this morning: ‘A clam glorifies God better than we do, because a clam is being all he can be, whereas we are not.’ Jesus chose to be Immanuel, God with us, because he was being all he could be – which is Love. He could have looked away and let us sink into the mire. He could have opted out rather than hanging in and hanging on the cross. But in so doing, he would have denied the essence of who he is – Love. He glorifies God by being all that he can be. The trees in their autumnal regalia glorify God by being all that they can be. May I, with his help, move in that direction myself today, being all that I can be, all that he made me to be.