To Pray and Watch

July 31, 2018

Beloved:


          Another whole month of summer to go and the garden I put in has exploded.  All I did this year was gourds, tomatoes, zinnias, sunflowers, and herbs. 


          The chickens scratched up all the sunflowers and half the zinnias and gourds but I still have loads of blooms and fat fruit on the vine.   I am ever amazed at how much the ground gives back compared to how little effort I put in.  Also, the rain.  It has rained and rained for days.  Scout and Rosie lay in the garage and sigh for all the smells they’re missing.   Or maybe they sigh to smell the rain.  For now, they’ve passed out from starvation because I haven’t made their breakfast. 

          On other calendars, summer is nearly gone.   The lull of a college town summer lasts just long enough to be shocked when they return. “Were there this many students last year?” say all the townies every August.  School supplies around here include crayons and cars.  So many cars.  I once saw a Mercedes delivered to a dorm!   I read there will be approximately 43,000 IU students this year and as we know they can go a little crazy when they first arrive.   
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          But one blessing is when don’t have to wonder what our job is, pray and watch.  We can pray for them like we pray for our own kids:  that they’ll be smarter and safer than their own brains invite them to be.   I am ever grateful for the Georgia mom who stopped and stayed with my own college kid after a scary car wreck.  I don’t even know her name but she is everything to me.  Just to be here to pray and watch may mean everything to people the world over, whose darlings have been entrusted to us.  

~ peace & prayers,
pastor annette