Lasting Summer Moments

The sun has gone down on Labor Day 2012. Tomorrow the teachers will report to school and the students will join them the following day. The cycle goes 'round and 'round. Does your faith go in cycles? Mine does, I think. There are times when I am uplifted and astounded at my daily devotions I read. When I am re-awakened with a sermon on Sunday. When I am positively bowled over by examples of the love of God's people for one another. And then there are those other times...I forget who told us that we cannot live on the mountaintop all the time. Or even the vague poem that I hear the refrain from, "it's in the valleys I grow." We know this to be true. The mountains beckon us to come up and breathe the fresh new air, feel the bracing wind, hear the meadow birds. But the cycle of life is down here. Where the backpacks are. Where the pencils are sharpened and the notebooks are written in and the click-click of computer keys for those endless book reports. So let's join in the cycle down here for just a moment to savor what God has brought about. The electricity for the lamps, the electronics, the gadgets we use every day. The sun that lights our path. The moon and stars that grace the earlier evenings. The crickets still chirping outside the window because it's not cold enough yet to chase them underground. The family coming together at the end of the day under one roof that hopefully doesn't leak. Let us rejoice in the cycles of life and faith as we enter another Autumn.