Did You Ever Collect Leaves as a Child?

Last Friday on the walk home from Mass, my eyes happened to fall on a leaf laying in front of me on the ground.  The leaf had three points and was colored in such a way it looked like flames.  It was so unusual I stopped to pick it up.  Inspecting it I was drawn in by its beauty.  Looking down to see if more of the same were present, I began to find others that were also beautiful but different.  

Collecting a handful of leaves I marveled at Our Lord's hand which seemed to have painted each with such beauty.  Holding the leaves, wonderful childhood memories rushed back.  

Thinking about these leaves, I imagined other children walking these lands hundreds of years ago and finding the beauty of the leaves so intriguing that they too had stopped to collect them.  Indeed it seemed to me that children are not so much different today as years in the past. Despite all the changes in our world that technology has brought, children still look at the world around them with wonder and even stop to pick up a handful of leaves.  

A magnificent maple tree beside
a local apartment complex

This experienced was confirmed when I returned home from Mass.  Enjoying the leaves so much I brought them in the house and kept them in a special pile.  By the following day they were no longer soft but seemed to have dried out with the warmth of the house and were a bit crinkly.  I was a bit sad that they no longer seemed to have the fresh beauty they had possessed the day before, yet my youngest son did not seem to think that being dried out had decreased their beauty.  He begged to keep them and bring them to his room.  My little treasure was now his and he enjoyed looking at each one.  At first I was going to suggest he pick a few but I could see nothing would make him as happy as giving him all of them.

This little experience with the leaves gave me such hope.  It gave a light to my heart to see that we are all so similar both today and years gone by.  Children have a way of making this evident.  In their innocence they look with wonder at the world and all God has created.  

Other Posts You May Enjoy:
How to Start a Children's Rosary 
Pure Joy Comes from the Lord
A River of Hope

Credit: please note that all the photos included in this post were taken by a member of the Children's Rosary who is a child.