Summer is Winding Down

I can look out my window and see that summer is beginning to fade. The tree leaves are looking shaggy and the flowers are losing their vibrant colors. That late summer buzzing of the grasshoppers and cicadas are a constant noise and the nights are growing increasingly chilly.

This makes me sad every year! Though I enjoy the cooler autumn temperatures, the reminder that winter is not too far away makes me sigh. In Ohio, winter gets an early grip and clings tenaciously to our homes and yards...it feels long and dreary because the sun is so often obscured by gray clouds. Night comes early and closes us in...I ALWAYS miss the hours of sunlight. If I had to put my finger on the thing that depresses me most about winter, it would be the lack of sunlight all day and the early darkness of the night. I tend to hurry into rooms during the winter months, turning on the lights and keeping the shadows at bay as long as possible.

Those coming months of winter seem to be hiding out in each drooping flower bud and each shaggy leaf that falls from the trees, even though the sun is still shining and the temperatures are still soaring high on the thermometer. I have to focus my sight on the here and now and not think about what may be just around the corner in September and October.

I have to do this in my life, too. I have to keep my focus on today and what the Lord is bringing to me just this hour and the next and the next. I want to savour His love and blessings in the halcyon summer days of my soul. I can't let myself reflect on what may be coming in my life-just ahead-or in the next months. The Amish are fond of saying that it's good that we don't know the future...BUT there is one scenario in my future that I am ever grateful for knowing ahead of time. It's this: when the Lord decides the end of my days here on earth, I KNOW where He plans to bring my soul...I know He plans to gather my soul to Him. This is one future plan that I LOVE knowing! The winter of my life may be just around the corner, but my soul will awake to eternal summer some day!

How about you? Is your soul's future known to you? It can be...and how wonderful to know that Heaven's summer is sure and true, no matter what the winters of life may bring.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, up-right and godly lives in this present age. While we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Titus 2:11-14