Ablaze Yet Not Burning

The fire of fall sweeps rapidly through every tree in every mountain side around me. They are all set ablaze yet not burning. And here I find my self,both like these trees and like curious Moses at once, "why isn't that bush burning up? I must go see it" (Exodus 3) Unbeknownst to him that it is here he will first 'see' God, it is here that he receives his call, the purpose for his life. God speaks out of fire numerous times through out the Scriptures, and I guess it says something about His nature. He refines, He consumes.

But having been washed in the blood of The Lamb, He will not consume us, just set us ablaze without burning... and there speak...

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,

MY grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design:
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

The God-man who has won all my affections experienced the first (consuming) for me, yet in all his perfection he communicated to others the pain, "I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished." Luke 12:49 He was a man acquainted with suffering and grief. Why must I think myself free from these, if all of me wants to be with Him and like Him?

Again I stare at the trees--their flickering leaves--and must face the fact that this is not a painless beauty, but the beauty of dying. In a matter of weeks they will all have to let go. Let go of each leaf they worked year round to grow and nourish; let go and stand bare for the time where one would think they'd need their leafy coat the most: Winter.

People watch from their window-sills, another rush of wind, another blow and another leaf lets go, "I love fall weather." The frigid winter comes, bleak skies, full of clouds. The sun shows up only once in a while. And there in the wind and rain and snow, stands the tree, naked.

"These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." --1 Peter 1.7

And I think Your paradoxes don't make sense because that is not how I see reality in my life work, yet a tree is more knowledgeable than I. He knows his seasons, he knows that to live, he must die.