Sunday Afternoon Tea

It was a chilly and wet 4th of July here but the 90 degree highs are peeping just around the corner. Thus... I will not complain about the cool or the wet. Instead, I sip one of my Celestial Seasonings Holiday teas (which were a gift). After all, this is a Holiday weekend, isn't it? Hmmm... do I want peppermint, or ginger and cinnamon, or Cookie Dough... peppermint I think.

Last night I watched fireworks on TV. Gorgeous fireworks. I can just imagine what it would be like watching them in person in the nation's capital. I can no longer watch fireworks without thinking of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and the magic of it all.

There were also up close and personal sounds as my neighbor's college age son had a few friends over and they were shooting off fireworks on the gravel lane we share... I asked them if they were certain they would not end up on my roof. :)

They assured me everything was safe so I told them to have fun and went back inside... watching TV fireworks and listening to the local sounds (and seeing a few colorful blasts from my window). I know there is a science behind all that color but it's still fun to think Gandalf is at work.

That... to me... is what summer is all about. Magic. Good magic. Narnia magic. Red, white, and blue magic. Morning Has Broken magic (beautiful song). The kind of amazement found in The Magician's Nephew when Aslan is singing the world into existence. That which the shepherds must have felt on the night of the Nativity as a multitude of angels appeared.

I meet so many children and young people today who have lost the sense that this world is a special place. There is so much darkness today which shows up in the eyes of those who are newer to the world than we who have lived longer.

How urgent it becomes that we who are mothers and fathers, grammies and granddads, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends... teach the children how to view life from the eyes of one who sees the Wonder.

As a Christian, I always shared with my children how God loved us so much He created the beautiful quartz, or the colorful leaves, or snow sprinkling like diamonds when the full moon shines "moon rays" down on a winter landscape, or the sweet taste of the just picked strawberry.

Have you ever been beside a child as they take their first taste of ice cream? How about when they first view the magic of fireflies? I have...

I have precious memories when both of my children first felt the taste of vanilla ice cream on their tongue. The look in their eyes as they tasted the cold and then the sweetness became real. Their little mouth opened once again as a robin waiting for mother to drop food in its' mouth.

Quite often when they were each small, I'd remind them that God did not have to give us delightful tastes, colors, and textures... we could have been given the same manna day in and day out if food was just to be used for substance.

I was also there when (my sister) Jean brought my niece and her children for a visit one hot summer week. The two children stood on my front porch, with jaws dropped and eyes wide as there appeared hundreds of fairy lights in my front yard as well as throughout the forest. Imagine what the sight would look like to a child raised in Florida who had never seen them before... they couldn't wait to run among the fireflies on the lawn.

I thought of them recently when Christopher called just as the sun was setting, asking if I could pick him up and bring him home for the night. The extreme heat and humidity were coming together to cause severe allergy symptoms since the air conditioning where he is living doesn't work well. I was very happy to bring him home as hubby was still in North Carolina and it was too quiet in the house. :)

As I drove the country roads, I couldn't help but drive slowly and let my eyes take in the scenes of early summer dusk on Midwest farms. No one else was on the road at that time. The sight caused me to thank the Creator of all...

For in the midst of large fields of corn, small farmhouses with horses grazing near the fence, another old house with sheep settling in for the night, my favorite rustic red barn, the tiny country church built in the 1800s... and the occasional modern subdivision... all having in common the thousands of fireflies twinkling in the summer heat as the sun was setting below the horizon. Breathtaking.

Perhaps we need to remind ourselves of these lessons... in the midst of the darkness and bad news overwhelming the world today... we need to look for the Narnia magic... that which remains of Eden as we watch seeds becoming vegetables... perhaps even picking up the Book of Psalms and reading the words of a shepherd who would be king... :)

Picture: Tea time at my home last year