Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. (Song of Songs (Solomon) 2:12)
“Summer is even at the door; The winter now hath vanished. The tender flowerets spring once more. And He who winter banished will send a happy summer.” Those lines are from “A New Song Here Shall Be Begun,” a ballad Martin Luther composed in 1523 when three martyrs were burned at the stake in Brussels. After the fire had been kindled, one of the men had said, “Blooming roses are strewn around me.”
Under much happier circumstances we can celebrate the coming of summer and the joy it brings when the family takes a vacation or holiday. Inspiring are the sights and sounds of summer: blooming flowers, the singing of birds, the splash of refreshing rain, the gurgle of a stream.
The voice of summer is the voice of God. God speaks through His wondrous works. The order of nature witnesses to His faithfulness. God promised Noah after the flood: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Genesis 8:22). This promise God has kept to this day.
God always keeps His Word. He promised to send a Savior from sin, and this Savior is His Son Jesus Christ, who died for us and rose again. “No matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:20), writes Saint Paul. In the summer sounds you can hear God’s voice. Are you listening?
PRAYER: Dear Father in heaven, speak to us in Your Works, in Your Word, and especially through Your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.
(Taken from “Our Journey with Jesus” (out of print), copyright 1976, International Lutheran Laymen’s League.)
Today's Bible Readings: Psalms 67, 71 Philippians 2
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