Summer is...

Summer is:  sweet corn, lemonade stands, iced tea, road trips, sunscreen, porch swings, lightning bugs, sprinklers, sparklers, hiking, s’mores, mountains, swimming holes, sand between your toes, and love on top of love...

It’s the middle of September - which means summer, with all its carefree delight, is almost over.  The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler, and the leaves on the trees (at least in Indiana!) are here and there beginning to change. 

For summer-lovers like me, reactions to all this can include:

a) denial

b) depression

c) weeping and gnashing of teeth

d) all of the above.  

Thanks be to God, our tradition offers us a ray of hope.  The kingdom of God is an “already” and “not yet” kind of thing.  “Already” we can see and taste and touch the sweet new world that God has prepared for all of creation, even though it’s “not yet” fully a reality.

So, as the summer slowly turns into fall, drink deeply.  Be mindful.  Sit down on your porch swing with a tall glass of lemonade and keep watch for a glimpse, a taste, a morsel of God’s kingdom that is already being revealed, one lightning bug at a time.  

And, if you're so inclined, listen to the lovely Butterflyfish tract below; share in the comments what summer is to you; and, above all else, enjoy the last glimmers of summer, they are but a glimpse of God’s great Summer that is yet to come.