Letter from the Editor
utumn is my favorite time of the year. As a col- reduced to finding a candle that guarantees our house
lege student at the University of Oregon I would will smell like we actually did bake the bread. But we
don my long denim skirt, my Delta Zeta know that the oven hasn’t been turned on in two
sweatshirt and, of course, pearls, and head to class weeks. And it’s easy to grieve those losses.
with an umbrella I was sure to leave behind at one of
my classes that day. Leaves covered the side walks. , s this issue of HopeKeepers Magazine is released,
tThe 1800s cemetery I had to walk past to get to class many of you are having surgeries and are in
gave off a wet, dreary smell, but then the sun would the dreary place of not knowing what au-
peek out from behind the clouds for just a few min- tumn will hold. Will surgery remove some of the pain
utes. As I got in got in line at the traveling coffee cart you’ve been coping with? Will it make it worse? Will
(no Starbucks in those days) I would smile to see a autumn be a time of joy, or simple survival?
few people I knew—not an everyday occurrence on a One of my favorite scriptures is “I will go before
campus of 20,000 people. you and will level the mountains; I will break
Now, over twenty years later, I am down gates of bronze and cut through bars of
blessed to be in sunny San Diego but I iron. I will give you the treasures of dark-
miss the season of fall. To maintain ness, riches stored in secret places, so that
some idea that it is autumn I must get you may know that I am the Lord, the
out the pumpkin room spray and God of Israel, who summons you by
decorate with my fall decorations. My name.” (Isaiah 45:2,3, NIV)
nephews and niece who live in Wash- When many people hear this, they
ington send me an annual gift, pine- first think it says that there will be treas-
cones, leaves and acorns they have lov- ures in the darkness, but it actually says
ingly gathered and they send them to me “treasures of darkness.” Darkness itself can
in a shoebox for me to lay out beside my hold treasures and God opening says that they
pumpkins from the local grocery. will be hidden; those riches can be found only in the
Autumn still comes, but now I must help create secret places (of darkness?).
the environment in order to find the sense of joy that I Darkness is never fun. Most of use would rather
desire. Some would say I am creating an illusion. If have light, the golden glows of sunbeams across our
that is true, so be it. Last year is a blur as I dealt with a rooms, b. But there are hidden riches we will find
staph infection and later the flesh eating bacteria. within the darkness that God won’t reveal in the
There was no “environment” I could create at the hos- light.
pital for seven days. I just wanted to survive. When As the days become shorter and darkness falls
my family reflect on an event from last year, it’s sooner, find ways to create your own comfort,
“before” or “after” my hospital stay. This year I am whether it is an apple-spiced candle, the creak of a
determined to soak it all in—the pumpkin patch, the new prayer journal, or some leaves spread across
chai tea, and even a few fake cobwebs your coffee table. And then settle into the darkness
When illness comes into our life lives, it can feel and see what God has to reveal to you this season.
like it is taking away all that we find the joy and com- Autumn is my favorite time of the year.
fort in. Our world is not naturally filled with simple
tasks like raking leaves into a pile and letting our kids
or grandkids run through them over and over again.
Our love of baking pies and pumpkin bread has been
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