Enjoyed the porch this morning with oldest brother. We talked about our gardens and our birds. He had a wren get in one of his pretty hanging baskets, pulled up a few flowers, and proceeded to build a nest. Wrens are curious little fellas and love to build nests in unusual places.

Mother Nature and Father Sky are fighting over control of the sky canvas this afternoon. One minute it’s hot and sunny, blue skies, fluffy clouds. Next minute the sun is blocked, clouds are gray with rain and a breeze blows. From the looks of the weather radar, I think Mother Nature might win this contest. Well, again the rain bypassed us. My flowers just faint, I water them well, and they faint again late afternoon. This heat wave is messing with my porch perching and my flower growing. I look at the flowers and think of all the unappreciated workers out in this heat keeping our world spinning. We should pray for them. Dodged a big old hornet filling up the bird baths. Read tonight I should put ice in the birds baths on extremely hot days. I’m going to buy two battery operated aerators and move the bird baths to the shade under the old water oak.

Lucien LaCroix wrote, “Life is a gift. As sweet as a ripe peach. As precious as a gilded jewel.” We’re not promised a tomorrow. We need to live with purpose and value each day God gifts us. I do value the day and I love to end the day watching the sunset from my porch swing. I went out on the porch as twilight began tiptoeing across the landscape and the sun was burning bright in the glorious colors of a ripe Georgia peach. As the sun tumbled down the horizon, she snatched Mother Nature’s watercolor brushes and blazed up a beautiful reddish-orange wildflower that burned across the horizon turning the high clouds a faint orange. So beautiful to watch the horizon pale as the colors fade into the darkness. Father Sky just crossed his arms knowing the sun was too hot to kiss goodnight and left to wake Mr. Waning Gibbous Moon and his collection of twinkling stars. The day ends as the lightening bugs come out to dance in step with the night critters’ symphony music.

Ecclesiastes 1:5 reads, “The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.” I was thinking about the sun as I sat in the porch swing — its beauty, its warmth, its healing power, its movement, it’s symbolic meaning. We can see God and the sun as sources of life and sustenance. Psalm 84:11 reads, “For the Lord God is a sun and a shield.” The sun lights and warms and nurtures the earth. God is our spiritual light, guiding us and nurturing our souls. Scripture in Ecclesiastes says, “Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to see the sun.” Life truly is a contrast of light and the inevitable darkness. We rejoice in the light of the good times and look for the light in the darkness of the solemn times. God brings light to the dark world, as does the sun, guiding us through life and giving us hope.

“See the sun! God’s crest upon His azure shield, the Heavens.” — Philip James Bailey