The leaves are turning, and vibrant crimsons, golds and browns have begun to fill all the little corners where green once lived. Lately we’ve taken to visiting our favorite lanes every now and then, to inspect and exclaim over each new mark of transformation we discover. A couple of days ago we were on one such drive when my five year old piped up.

“But Mama, when IS ‘fall day?’” It took a bit of back and forth to decipher what she meant. “You know, Mama! The day when all the leaves will actually REALLY fall!”

We’d discussed the way cooler weather ushers in the change to autumn scenery, but she wanted to know when the shift would be complete.

She understood the concept of the process, but she was ready to see the finished work.

Girl, same.

How many times have I strained against my Father’s timing? How many times have I asked Him to hurry it along, or to change the process, or make it less difficult or painful?

A friend and I were discussing process the other day, and how uncomfortable it is to lean into the crushing and pressing. Our nature is to pull back from all the things that make us feel raw, exposed, or vulnerable. But it is in these seasons we have the greatest opportunity to be refined and transformed as He shines light on the very darkest places in us.

We can’t even see how dark it truly is, until He reveals it in His timing.

It is only in these seasons we find how much we have relied on self, rather than our Savior. It’s only when we yield to what He’s doing, turn away from our nature, and allow Him to do the deep, searching soul and spirit work He alone can do, that we can ever find relief.

If He were to transform us all at once, as we’d like, we wouldn’t receive the gift of trusting Him through the process. If He were to transform us all at once, we wouldn’t have the chance to marvel at every new color He calls to life.

Or exclaim over the way each old thing He removes flutters gently to the earth below.

If you’re deep in process with Him today, like me?

Be encouraged. Lean in closer to Him. Breakthrough is coming, but there’s beauty found here in this becoming, too.

Little by little. Leaf by leaf.