Blooming in September

We woke up to a delightful, totally unexpected surprise yesterday morning...the wisteria in our backyard was in bloom for the second time this year...on the first day of autumn!  It blossomed at the usual time this spring, gracing us with its fragrant purple promise, but I've never known it to bloom in September. We had a long drought this summer.  Perhaps the stress of the season of dryness caused it to go dormant and the rains of the past few weeks awakened it.  I don't know.  But the perfume of fresh cut wisteria in September is very special.

I wonder if there's a message in this...I'm thinking maybe there is.  At least for me.  Am I in my own autumn?  I don't know.  If God gives me a normal life span, I probably am.  I had a wonderful spring and summer.  All the predictable things happened and a few that nobody could have foreseen.  But the signs of autumn have begun.  As the leaves change, so do I.  My hair isn't blond anymore.  My skin isn't smooth and unlined.  I'm at the end of a career I never expected to have - I'll retire before the snow flies this year. 

Will I bloom in this season of autumn?  I hope so.  Will I be a sweet perfume to those around me?  I'll try.  May I take as my purpose what it says in the Bible...

The older women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things.  That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children.  To  be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.  Titus 2:3-5