Oh the wonder of it all...

Popping pills in the mouth of a pissed off donkey was not a part of my skill set until this week. Twice a day Shirley must take four antibiotic pills for her injured eye. Pills wrapped in bread liberally covered in sugar (Mary Poppins was right) makes a tasty package. The upper eyelid is still very swollen but the lower eyelid is back to normal. After dosing the eye with antibiotic ointment, Michael and I walked back up the hill to the house. The rainclouds were gathered over the far mountains but none seem headed our way. Jason the weatherman keeps on promising rain will come but so far it seems to come everywhere but here. The ground is hard and dry. Plants are dusty and toughened by the last of summer’s heat. Grasshoppers abound, leaping in joyful abandon as you walk through the yard, all shapes, colors and sizes. The bear has made a visit to Tim and Jeannie’s house leaving bent bird feeders and big footprints behind as evidence of its passing. Flocks of wild turkeys fly up from the overgrown hay field when Woody bounces in to chase them. The young ones are almost indistinguishable from their parents now, nearly full grown. The old white turkey survives still, against all odds. Color is beginning to appear early this year. Some trees are already turning red, yellow and brown. Leaves are dropping and the smell of summer’s end will soon be replaced by autumn’s tangy sharp scent. We are poised at the top of the ferris wheel of seasons awaiting the descent into fall and winter, holding our breath under the blue full moon, learning to live in the darkness that is creeping back into the long summer’s day. Oh, the wonder of it all… No matter how many times I feel the season’s change, the mystery and miracle of it still makes a thin place for my soul to touch God’s creation energy. We who live in this day and age know so much about the “how” of things but the “why” is still as elusive for us as it was for the Psalmist. In our acquisition of knowledge I fear we may have lost our capacity to recognize the miracles that surround us, the Mystery that cannot be known. To God who by understanding made the heavens, for God’s steadfast love endures forever, to God who spread out the earth upon the waters, for God’s steadfast love endures forever, to God who made the great lights, for God’s steadfast love endures forever, the sun to rule over the day, for God’s steadfast love endures forever, the moon and the stars to rule over the night, for God’s steadfast love endures forever. The call and response of the 136th Psalm remind me of the bedrock truth of all creation. In climate change and polar ice cap melting, God’s steadfast love endures forever. In hurricane floods and summer drought, God’s steadfast love endures forever. In season’s change and darkness descending, God’s steadfast love endures forever. In the wonder of it all, the mystery and the miracle, God’s steadfast love endures forever. Amen and amen.