Oh, those summer days ...

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

 Fear the Lord, you his holy people,  for those who fear him lack nothing” (Psalm 34:8-9, NIV).

  I will miss summer.  I love summer. I always have and I always will.  I like a cold glass of ice tea with the moist condensation dripping on fingers as I savor the taste I love on a hot muggy day.  I like the blooming flowers and the smell of freshly cut hay.  I love the foods of summer like sweet corn and strawberries.  I like fishing on early mornings and I love just resting in my hammock under the shade of a leafy tree and looking up at a bright sky. 

     I loved the summer when I was a kid.  It was warm out and the days were long.  On some days there simply was no agenda but to just be outside and it just was great fun.  Or you could build something, tinker with your bike and maybe convince someone to go swimming or fishing.  Then the summer of bliss would all come crashing down when the local paper would publish the bus schedules in the late summer.  Somehow the truth was starring me in the face … it was now time to go back to school.  Of course there were some good things about school but overall it is hard to go back after the summer.  Most of us all have good memories of our youth and our summers.

    Have you ever really thought about what God gives to us and how wonderful it is?  How much better it is than anything upon this earth.  His compassion extended to us by His grace is so much better than any afternoon nap in the best of hammocks.  The satisfying living water that comes in the goodness of His care is far more deeply satisfying than any beverage found on this earth.  His forgiveness coming from the death on the cross of our Savior is countless times more compelling and replenishing than all the rains of all the summers of all time.  The smell of the sweetness of His love is better than any fragrance on any summer breeze.   There is nothing that will disappoint us in our relationship with God and it is far better than a lifetime of the greatest things of summer.  Go ahead and “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” for He is better than all the summer days of our lives.   Amen!

Suggested Bible Reading … Psalm 34