Summer is the time when people get together.
Having formerly lived on a cul-de-sac for many years, it was easy to draw the conclusion that neighbors as close as twenty feet away figuratively hibernate in the colder months.
Then, all of a sudden, the weather breaks and there is finally time to stop watering the plants and get in an overdue chat with the elderly widow. Where was I all winter?
Summer also allows for vacations which extend connections with people over barbecues or boat rides or simply sitting in the backyard or a nearby park.
There comes a season in life when relationships seem a bit more distant, harder to access and, in the extreme, literally die off.
It then behooves us to treasure the summertime of relationships. If you happen to bump into a neighbor, have the kids or grandkids over or see a friend at the soft ice cream stand, understand that it’s as precious as those too-few perfect 80 degree days.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: While it may be natural to feel like our relationship with God is seasonal in that we at times feel closer (and warmer) to Him than during other seasons. Use those closer times as portals by banking their reality.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.…that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ…draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Hebrews 10:24,25 ESV, Colossians 2:2 ESV, James 4:8 ESV