Thursday, September 6, 2012

Baxter is Back

Summer is over, and the world is gearing up for the long haul until next June.  But before we forget about the months just passed, we need to take stock of their hidden lessons for us.  Baxter shows us how.

Baxter loves the summer.  He sits on the ledge of open windows.  Open windows offer so much more than closed and locked ones.  He smells the fresh air, hears the birds chirping, the dogs barking and the humans chattering.  He feels like the outside comes indoors when the breeze streams through the room and the sun shines brightly on the walls.  In the winter, Baxter protects himself from the elements of nature, but in the summer, he invites them into his living space to refresh and brighten it.  Baxter soaks in the summer, and I think its memory keeps him going through the cold, dark days of winter when he is confined to the artificially heated room behind closed and locked windows and doors.

Taking our cue from Baxter, the lessons of summer are many.  Lesson one:  living creatures thrive in light and air.  These elements lift our spirits; they make us look healthy; they even nourish us with Vitamin D and oxygen.  Lesson two:  hard work in cooperation with the natural environment yields a harvest that nourishes life.  August and early September are such bountiful months for fresh fruits and vegetables, and there is no substitute for the taste of locally grown foodstuffs.  Lesson three:  simple things make summer so rich.  An exotic vacation or an expensive purchase isn’t the usual hallmark of a great summer.  It’s the annual picnic or the still of a summer evening or the sound of a lawn mower or the visit to the soft-serve stand that distinguishes this season.  Simple things carry a weight of meaning that we learn through the years to appreciate.

For us as Christians, these lessons hold a spiritual message as well.  The fullness of human thriving comes in the light of Christ and the breath of His Spirit.  We seek this light deep in our hearts, and no artificial substitutes will satisfy us.  We need more than oxygen to sustain us.  We need the breath of God to keep us from smothering in the stale air of our own self-centeredness.  The fruits that will last are those generated by our efforts and God’s grace cooperating to make a better world for all peoples.  Grace tempers the tyranny of our human efforts to “do it my way”, yet our hard work makes concrete and tangible God’s hidden life and power in our midst.  Finally, God is simple, not in a simplistic or naïve sense, but in the sense of being true and self-evident.  Like the simple things that make up summer memories, there is no hidden agenda or dressed-up appearances with God.  He loves us without conditions, and this simple fact exposes our own truth and goodness that we often try to ignore or deny.

For Baxter and for all of us, summer is quickly passing, but its lessons can carry us through the colder seasons ahead.  Preserve a little of the nourishment grown in the summer, and take it from the shelf when you need it in a January time of life.  Hold on to the lessons of summer until it is warm and sunny again.  They keep all of us healthy and holy.