We’re told in Genesis that one season will follow the next, “as long as the earth endures.”  God’s promise. 

Summer. For some It’s the most fun of the seasons.  Autumn is the flashiest with it’s color changing foliage.  Winter, perhaps the most dreaded. And then there’s spring. For some it’s the best part of the cycle.  The reoccurring seasons are a reminder of promises kept.

Yesterday, I took a tour of the yard, a small city plot.  These pictures show some of what I found. Signs of spring!  Rebirth!

Here they are, the crocuses.  They’ve been blooming for a couple of days, continuing their annual cycle.

Then there are the tulips.  Deer food. I’m convinced that there’s a roving band of deer delinquents that wanders the city blocks in the wee hours of the morning looking for a tasty bite of tulip.  Those are the buds emerging from between the chopped off leaves. I hope they make it.

It’s early yet..  There’s more to come as these daffodils promise.

It was a short walk this morning. It wasn’t too early. Even though the sun had been up for a time, the day started out dim. It was cold, windy, gray. The clouds hung low, dark  and puffy, the rain had been rung out overnight.

Thanksgiving Day comes at the tail end of autumn. The leaves are mostly off the trees, leaving bare skeletons of trunks and branches, resting for a season until reviving again in spring. The flashy maples have already shed their load of leaves. It’s only the pesky oaks that are hanging on to their thick, brown leaves, thwarting the neighborhood leaf-rakers trying to close the books on their fall cleanup.

Overnight the wind whipped through the leaf cluttered oaks, bringing to mind waves on the bay. So my goal on this morning’s walk was to find some waves. The ten minute walk took me along a leaf strewn path into the teeth of a brisk wind. Down at the beach, lots of water, no crashing waves, more gray, summer put away for the season.

Today is Thanksgiving Day. I took a walk in the cold morning grayness. In spite of the gloom around me I thought about what there is for which I have to be thankful. Then, later, at church, I was reminded that the God to whom I pray my thanks is faithful, compassionate and sovereign. Today’s gift. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Yesterday there was a new moon.

Well, not brand never-existed-before new. Just a phase

You just can’t see it when it’s new. So,

It’s the same moon

Nothing has changed.

A new moon rises in the east with the sun

It sets in the west with the sun

When the moon is new you can’t see this dance, but

It’s the same moon.

Nothing has changed.

When the moon is new, the far side is illuminated

The near side is not, it’s dark, waiting for the light. Yet,

When the moon is new, you just can’t see it. No light. However,

It’s the same moon

Nothing has changed.

That’s how it is with life sometimes

The familiar, the precious, the things relied on

For a time seem to disappear. Out of sight. Remember

It’s all the same

Nothing has changed.

Next week the moon will not be new, but

Waxing, crescent, growing again

Beautiful again

It’s the same moon, always and forever

Nothing changed.

Faced with a long, empty afternoon I decided to take my camera for a walk.  The wind whipping around my house this afternoon, convinced me that ‘thar be waves out there,’  at Lake Michigan, that is. So, off I went in search of the big waves.  

But what if the waves were disappointingly flat?  Then what? As I drove to the lake, I noticed an interesting mix of clouds and blue sky.  So, no waves, no problem. Thar be clouds! Not only that, the fall colors are creeping farther and farther south.  I thought, “Thar be colors!”  So I challenged myself to come back with 10 pictures that I like – waves, clouds and/or colors. 

I drove on!  As I did, the clouds thickened to a nondescript gray and hid the blue sky.  With the fading clear sky, the sunlight dimmed and the sporadic splotches of fall color gradually lost their brilliance.  Hmmm…. I revised my self-challenge.  Maybe thar be five pictures worthy of keeping?

So here are the five… I like them.  I thought I’d share this afternoon’s waves, clouds and colors.  Today’s gift.

These two pictures don’t count.  They just provide some meteorological context. 

These are the five…

Okay, this is going to seem a little strange. You don’t have to read any farther or you can just stop at anytime, if you feel a little squeamish. Your choice. Here goes…

This summer, there was a two week span when… 

Wait, first… You know when, at your house, you might look up and notice spider webs! Yes, sometimes you see those hanging, silky strings laden with dust and stuff that have become visible in the sunlight. Ugh! Grab the dust mop! Knock those things down! Get rid of them – BEFORE the cleaning lady comes!  There’s no cleaning lady at my house, but nonetheless, they have to get gone!

So, anyway, there was this two week span when I noticed a spider web… 

Now, I have nothing against spiders.  Granted, I’m not a big fan of bugs, spiders or other creeping things crawling on me.  They have their place, I have mine. However, there’s no arachnophobia here. Most, if not all, the spiders I’ve encountered are smaller than a quarter.  I’ve never been bitten, and in my youth, I’ve been known to step on a few. I’m way bigger! No fear!

Now, I noticed a spider web, not up in the corner by the ceiling, but down in the corner where the floor meets the wall, next to the toilet.  Not only did I notice a web, but in it there lived the occupant of the web, no bigger than an eraser on a pencil. It was just sitting there where the floor meets the wall, yes, next to the toilet, of all places.  Strange place, you might say. True, but what does a spider know about location, location, location?

So, at that point, not quite ready to get the dust mop, I let the beast be.  I wondered about it’s little square inch or two of ecosystem there on my bathroom floor.  How does it survive in such limited space? What food comes it’s way and gets caught in the web?   What kind of spider? Carnivore, herbivore, bothivore? Life span? Hmmm…? Interestingly, when I came back later the thing was still there.  For about two weeks it just hung around in the same spot. I watched and wondered. Then, it was gone!

The mystery to me isn’t where did the little spider go?  But, rather, how do tiny critters like that survive in the web of life in which they find themselves?  What purpose does that small creature have in the grand scheme of God’s creation?

Oh!  Let me tell you about this.  This summer, for about a two week stretch, I noticed a flower, occupying its square inch of the crack next to the foundation of my house…

Hmmmm…. I guess there are a lot of things occupying square inches about which I can watch and wonder. I’ll keep my eyes open.  I’ll try to remember the One to whom all of our square inches belong.

Abraham Kuyper,  a Dutch theologian, had something to say about square inches and such, although, I don’t  think he had spiders on his mind. He said, “There is not a square inch in the whole’ domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

So there you have it, something to think about… spiders and pansies and square inches … and …  the One to whom it all belongs… today’s gift.