A Summer Prayer  

Long warm days...
The pace of life slows...
A time for picnics and rest in the shade...

Lord, help me to rest awhile in the cooling shade of your presence.
Slow down my restless heart and fill me with gentle compassion for all your people. Amen.

A Psalm of the Prophet Summer

O Sacred Creator of heaven and earth, like a loving parent with a choice Christmas gift,

You keep your present of paradise hidden away from our sight.

Your Son Jesus said that eye has not seen nor ear heard what you have dreamed up for us when we finally come home to you. 

But I wonder: are their seasons in heaven just as there are on earth?

Or have you chosen one of earth’s four as your favorite, one unending, changeless season of bliss for those who love you?

If so, I’d bet that you selected summer, with its picnics and leisurely pace, with its fun and play and whole hearted zest.

I’d lay odds that you set apart summer, the season of vacations—children’s favorite free-time when both young and old drink in the enjoyment of life—to be the work-free environment of your heavenly paradise

May we, by your grace, taste your eternal Sabbath in the warm pleasures of summer days, and slowly savor the flavor of your reward in the nectar of summer nights.

                                    (Edward Hays:  Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim)

Gratitude for the Season of Summer