Autumn Glory

  It's that season again, when all the leaves slip off their green mantle and wrap themselves in glorious colour. Whenever a road trip is necessary, I try and take the prettiest drive to get there because  autumn beauty is only here for a brief while. Especially if a wind roars in. It doesn't take long for the trees to stand bare branched.
  Yet, bare branches have their own beauty. They reveal the story of how wind, water, heavy snows, and ice have shaped their being.

  I watched a show on fractals a long while ago but the concept keeps me fascinated. That's why I am going to write about it again. (Smile.)
  A basic fractal pattern begins with a starting line then divides equally, the divisions divide again and so forth until a fan shape appears. This basic model ends up looking like a perfect tree. The mathematicians put one of these drawings through a computer simulation modelling the effects of the elements on the shape of the lines or branches. It ended up being a very natural looking tree, twisted and leaning.
  It amazed me to learn a forest is built the same way. A large tree will have two smaller ones nearby. The two smaller ones will have four; the four sixteen even smaller trees. What seems to be a random chaos of forest is actually laid out in a set mathematical formula.
  It provided science with the ability to measure how much oxygen a forest can create.
  It gave me goosebumps to realize here was proof a forest is rooted in intentional design.
  It also helped me see that God is a God of pattern. The tree branch fractal appears everywhere in our natural world. From huge cascading rivers to the veins with us, it's there.

  It's obstacles that remove the mathematical precision. Nothing in nature is a straight line.
  Ha! Nothing in life is a straight line. It's a series of forks in the road. It's a series of decisions and choices.
  I will say one thing about science. The more we learn, the closer we get to God.

  And I am being led this morning to invite any of my readers who aren't followers of Jesus to ask Him to be part of your life. The road is forked, the decision is yours. Which way will you take?

  "Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find." Mathew 7:7