The only piano instrumental to hit Billboard’s #1 spot is Roger Williams’ 1955 chart-topper, “Autumn Leaves.”  It “covered” the 1945 original, a French song entitled “Les Feuilles Mortes” (literally, “The Dead Leaves”).

Autumn splashes us with a palette of warm, earthy tones, easing the transition from summer’s scorching colors.  But all too soon autumn leaves.  Trees that proudly modeled fall’s finery are stripped of their moment in the sun, now barely a memory.

Our lives parallel nature’s predictable pattern.  A seedling bursts forth into a bud that blossoms into its role in life’s bouquet.  Then comes the chill of the next cycle, graying the landscape.  Finally, the helpless leaf drifts to the soil below.

Our Creator’s half-brother James writes, “You don’t even know what your life tomorrow will be!  You are like a puff of smoke which appears for a moment and then disappears.  What you should say is this:  ‘If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.’”

Where will you be when your autumn leaves?