Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
Revelations 3:20
An early summer sky stretching at sunset. The lengthiness of daylight has reached its full capacity. Spring peepers make-way for throaty bullfrogs as they serenade in baritone voices. Slick-back crickets, in their ebony tuxedos, fiddle away along grassy tuffs. Even the summer moon seems more robust as it hangs in sweltering sky.
It’s summer.
Children drip from pool water and popsicle juice; smiling for there are no studies today. Just sun and fun drinking in memories which will linger a lifetime. Barefoot toes wiggle in the grass as giggles pour into the summer air. The easy-going summer days are well suited to a child.
Though summer vacations are fun, there’s something simple and impressive about empty days at home. A book and blanket in the backyard, building stick forts in walkways or chalking the driveway with a latest creations are all simple things to fill a summer day. Time to loaf and let the imagination stretch, like the summer sunsets, is so important. Everyone needs to learn how to occupy down time or to be comfortable in one’s aloneness.
I still remember sitting in a field, as a city girl of eight, studying the prairie flowers before me. Butterflies fluttered about sipping nectar. Ants marched by tiny pebbles with their new found treasure. Motor noises and people’s voices had vanished, though they were near, for I had entered a world of imagination where only the busy prairie was before me. Solitude can be embraced in our non-stop world.
God gives us all times to reflect. Often those times are misused with clutter of the world. To enter a time of solitude in order to let the mind rest from daily duties is a choice.
I’ve spend less time in open prairie fields as an adult now. One of my favorite places to find solitude is in the endless adventures the Bible reveals. It’s alright to sit in the garden while busy hummingbirds fly by, holding a popsicle on a sweltering summer afternoon, paging through the Word of God. One only needs to make the time.
Patti Wolf 