Sometimes, I just jump in the car and drive to Toccoa Falls to do photography. The falls (186 feet high–34 feet higher than Niagara) is located on the campus of Toccoa Falls College, which rests on more than 1,100 acres of mostly woodland. One of the college’s closest neighbors is the National Forest. Usually it is a quiet place to get away, but this was not the case early Monday morning.

At 2:30 am tragedy struck as fire broke out at Gate Cottage—a historical building located on the side of Toccoa Creek at the opening to the gorge that contains the falls. This familiar building had welcomed visitors for nearly seventy years. It also housed the faculty for the college’s school of Counseling. While it was a total loss, college officials have vowed to rebuild it along with a new building that will include classrooms and office space for displaced faculty members.

The fire still smoldered late Tuesday afternoon.

Normally, this building would be filled with visitors browsing through the gift shop and getting ready to walk the short distance to Toccoa Falls.

A few days ago, I stumbled across these words written by Amy Carmichael, “All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness. All, not some; not only those we would naturally choose, but all. . . . And there is also a path which each of us must walk alone. Though we do not see Him, He companions us; and, as we look back, we see that the path was always mercy and truth. . . . Let us rest our hearts on this very lovely word: ‘All the paths of the Lord are mercy.’” I really love Amy’s wording. Some may think, Have words been left out? No. This was just the way she thought and wrote.

She’s right, you know: All the pathways that God choses for us to travel are paths of mercy, lovingkindness, goodness, and grace. We may not understand why He has asked us to go in a certain direction, what will greet us over the next rise, or how we will handle the challenge when it comes. But He does. Other times, we may falsely believe we are traveling alone, but we never are. He truly “companions” our every step. No matter what leaf-littered pathway we have been asked to traveled, He walks it with us.

I’m not going to say, “leaves of gold.” In fact, someone please stop me from even thinking that cliche! But I will say that one of my favorite times to do photography is in the fall when it is cloudy and even a little rainy and the colors “pop” against a muted sky and landscape.

After a devastating fire in 1913 threatened to close Toccoa Falls College, God gave the school’s founder Dr. Richard Forrest a promise that has become the college’s anthem of faith: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners . . . to comfort all who mourn . . . giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified” (Isaiah 61:1-3) Today, you may feel as though your life is nothing more than a battlefield of destruction. You have been tested by fire and wonder if you will be able to continue. The answer is yes! Jesus has come to set you free from doubt and worry. He promises to comfort all who mourn, to provide beauty for ashes, and a mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fear or fainting. Trust Him and He will work mightily in your life!

I love color. Maybe it is because I spent the early part of my life living in gray areas that only brought sorrow and heartache. Yesterday after taking this photograph, I just thought, “Yes! Let everything praise the Lord!”

Finally, fall is making its way to northeast Georgia.