Symphony Of Summer Praise

Struggling from the warmth of sleep, we feel the clear crisp air filled with the knife-edge of frost. Our ears are serenaded by the songs of birds as they greet the new day. Dew sprinkled flowers lift sparkling faces to the sun.

God's finger draws cloud pictures in the blue morning sky. Angels, puppies and ice cream cones fill our imaginations. Leaves dressed in their glorious summer green, speak to us as a brisk breeze blows through the trees foretelling a colder time yet to come.The smell of crisping bacon tantalizes our taste buds. Dogs bark,children play and is the distance the sound of mooing cows. Each distinct sound harmonizing into a summer symphony of praise. As the chilly air begins to warm, we start to enjoy the peaceful, pastoral scenes we have come to see. The road weaves a pattern through the cornfields as a tapestry in the hands of a master weaver. Tassels on ears of corn ripe and ready for picking are almost near enough to touch.

Barefoot children play in farmyards and run through fields ripe with the colors of the rainbow. Red tomatoes, orange carrots, yellow squash, blueberries, green beans and purple eggplant, all so fragrant and flavorful. Sights fill our eyes with color and our nostrils with the smells of anticipation. They are filling us with yearnings for tempting treats to tease our palates with every taste.

Another mile, another miracle. A cow and her calf, a ewe and her lamb and a mare with her colt. Babies struggling to stand on new wobbly legs, stretching up to nurse. Some are older and stronger so they play chasing butterflies and each other through fields filled with daises, buttercups and buzzing bees.

Over a hill there is surprising, eye-catching splendor of an orchard. The tree limbs bent low heavy with the tart, tangy apples ready to be picked to pucker and please our lips waiting in anticipation. Peaches sweet and succulent ready to fill a pie makers dream.Can you visualize leaves playing tag along a sun-washed road? How about a brook playing leap-frog as it splashes happily over sun dappled rocks? Can you see the ducks playing follow-the-leader in a near by pond, as frogs sun themselves on fragrant flower-filled lily pads? Oh, look! The sun is playing hide and seek with the clouds. The clouds win!

Now it is raining. Raining on our sun-washed road. Raining on the orchards and fields Life-giving, thirst-quenching rain. Enjoy the fresh, clean smell of the earth being cleansed by the warm summer rain. Ribbons of water draw pictures on our windshield. Children splash in the puddles. A brief shower and then, the rainbow of God's promise. The rainbow joining all creation in praise of it's Creator.

As God with His palette paints the vibrant colors of sunset, we search out our favorite spot to watch windmills cut silhouettes against the last rays of the setting sun, now, wrapped in a blanket of peace-filled stillness, we watch the moon casting ghostly shadows through the trees. The smoldering embers of our campfire glow as if sentinels of a sleeping city keeping watch with us into the darkening hours and the end of the day. A day that has been filled with the quiet yet exploding beauty of our Father's world. A day filled with memories of a symphony of summer praise.

[ by Shirley Iaria (shirleybear@webtv.net) -- from 'CMI' ]