Nothing Gold Can Stay–Except Jesus

As a child, how I loved October, the chill on my cheeks and the early dark that foretold the coming of Halloween, that hallowed eve when I could become anyone I wanted. And, by merely pressing a doorbell, I received a mother lode of Almond Joys, Pay Days, Milky Ways, Tootsie Rolls, Fireballs, and Sugar Daddies—until the bewitching hour when the last lady of the house said, “It’s getting a late,” and turned off her porch light.

As a child, back in school the next morning, how I grieved the return of the ordinary—plaid dresses, saddle shoes and cafeteria ravioli.

As an older adult, October became the month my mother died. My wonderful mother who made all my Halloween identities come true with her magic sewing machine.

Last October my younger brother died. The same brother with whom I traded Halloween treats, dead at an early age, an alcoholic.

October is the month I married my husband. As a surprise, he took me to honeymoon at the Hanover Inn without a reservation. His hopes were dashed, however, by New England’s renowned fall foliage. The boutique hotel is a mecca for leaf peepers, and there was no room at the inn for our wedding night.

October is the month one of my darling grandsons was born. He’s the one we almost lost when his infant lungs were infected by a virus.

Some of my close friends have recently become widows, and I realize it’s getting late. The porch light could turn off at any moment.

October has become as bittersweet as summer’s leaves that blaze like flame before they drift to earth and return to the soil they came from.

Robert Frost said it best in “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” his poem I probably should have read in high school but came across instead in my autumn years when I could comprehend its pathos.

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost

Frost’s famous poem is true of this life. How often joy is escorted by grief. Life is fleeting, and nothing gold can stay. And yet, what a relief to trust Jesus’ words are true of eternity.

“For God so loved the world (that’s you and me) that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16 (NIV)

Many Christians forsake Halloween as a pagan holiday, but I still love it even as a grown up because, ironically, I see it rich with Christian symbolism and hope.

• Children walking in darkness
• Surrounded by ghosts and goblins
• For one night are gifted sweets beyond measure
• All through putting on someone else’s identity

For me, Halloween showcases our childlike longing for something more, and how, as believers, we take off our old identities forever to put on Christ’s marvelous light!

October is a reminder that this world is fallen and nothing gold can stay–except Jesus.

Cover photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

Copyright Ann C. Averill 2022