Shade Tree Wisdom 8/29/09

Can’t you just feel it? If you have a dog, you’ll notice him one morning just standing and sniffing, because he knows that fall is on the way. And we can feel it too, if we just stop a bit in the early morning. There’s something different in the air, a fresh feel. That’s Fall.

God made this promise.
“As long as the earth endures,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat
Summer and winter,
Day and night,
Will not cease.” Genesis 8,22.

That’s the promise, richly kept.

While it is welcome, there’s something just a bit sad about it too. Mornings are now filled with those large yellow boxes ferrying their precious cargo. Stores have been busy with their fall sales, and Texas held its annual “No Tax Day” to ease that burden just a bit. Children are anxious about ‘fitting in’ with their dress, and are busily phoning friends about what they will wear.

Staff are meeting their new charges and trying to settle into a routine for best learning for the year. While scholars are trying to find their classrooms and getting used to a new schedule. All hoping for a successful year. Football is in the air, and the school band has been at work practicing their routines for several weeks, usually the hottest part of the summer, while players have been sharpening their skills and hoping for a successful season.

Here in Texas there’s more. Now is the time for the annual hummingbird migration to Mexico and South America. Some of the hummer species that breed in the Rocky Mountains and other Western States funnel through the Davis Mountains, while the ruby-throated hummer, the only species native to Eastern regions, skirts the Texas coast.

Rufous hummers fly from the Pacific Northwest over the Rocky Mountains all the way to the Texas coast. A lady living in Lake Jackson has the same female visiting her yard and staying through the winter since 2003. That year this hummer was banded, and it is caught and checked each year. Usually appears between the 9th and 15th of August.

Although they weigh only a few ounces, they fly at speeds exceeding 30 miles per hours with wings beating about 50 times a second and hearts pumping blood at 1200 beats a minute.

“All flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth”. Psalm 8,7-9.

It is all a reminder, regardless of time of year, that God’s Word is ever true, trusted, and faithful.
GPD 8/29/09