By Emily Malloy

A common question I get asked while discussing Theology of IV: Arranging the Seasons regards the decoration of homes as a reflection of the season of autumn.

Image From Theology of Home IV: Arranging the Seasons

I find the renewed interest in our homes reflecting this season fascinating. It is almost as if from September through the year's end at Christmas, we have a newfound attraction to something we weren't concerned with before. It can result in a flurry of expensive trips to big-box stores to purchase every pumpkin-themed décor item, seasonal pillows, or autumnal phrased sign.

As anyone who has read Theology of Home IV has come to realize, I am an advocate of having our homes imitate nature through the year. What we often forget in the flurry of expensive purchases is that nature provides the simplest and most beautiful way to accomplish this desire. 

Image From Theology of Home IV: Arranging the Seasons

My answer to that above question has been the same each time it is asked: we are extremely fortunate that autumn is a time in which there is so much bounty readily available outside to bring into our homes. There are acorns, dried flowers, colorful branches (think: Japanese Maple), pumpkins and gourds, the last round of rose blooms, dried and fresh hydrangea, gardenias, dahlias, mums, corn stalks, and so much more. There is so much to be found right outside of your door.

Personally, my heart swells at the sight of dried items like corn stalks, grapevine, and bitter sweets. They are simple, yet communicate so much of the season. Cinderella pumpkins are also one of the magnificent fruits of the fall (although I personally tend to wait until late October to decorate with them, so that they survive until the beginning of Advent as Mississippi still has many weeks of warm days to come). 

One benefit of the use of gourds, pumpkins, acorns, and the like, is that they last an extremely long time (acorns last forever, really). Beauty is most often found in those simplest of things. 

Image from Theology of Home IV: Arranging the Seasons

There is so much beauty to carry through until (and include during) Advent. In this season we marvel at the paradox of the bountiful harvest and death of the landscape as it eases into its winter slumber. Having our homes reflect this beauty permits the echoing of nature within our homes and hearts. 

Image from Theology of Home IV: Arranging the Seasons