How I hate typing those words: Goodbye to summer. It seems like summer just got here! I decided to take a peek through my vacation photographs and recall all of the reasons why I’m thankful for the Summer of 2016.
Vacation time started in June with a family trip to Colorado. We rented a cabin near Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked in the woods and mountains every day.
The beautiful weather and sunny beaches near our home brought visits from dear friends and family members. I loved spending time with them.
One weekly highlight this summer was listening to my husband’s band concerts in the city park by the lake shore.
Beaches. Biking. Picnicking. Sunshine. What blessings!
Now it’s Labor Day weekend and we have one final beach/picnicking/celebrating/extravaganza planned. Our house will be filled with family members and guests and lots of food—just the way I like it!
I think part of the reason I hate to see summer end is because I know what’s coming soon—falling leaves and fading flowers and then the cold death of winter. After the flood, God promised Noah that “As long as the earth endures, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Genesis 8:22). This promise of resurrection is built into Earth’s cycles and seasons, and points to the resurrection of Christ—and ultimately our own. I’ve been reading “Home: How Heaven and the New Earth Satisfy our Deepest Longings” by Elyse Fitzpatrick, and she describes what our resurrected life on the New Earth will be like. In many ways, it will resemble my summer vacation; spending time with family and friends, and enjoying the astonishing beauty of a renewed earth. I can’t imagine an earth that’s more beautiful than this one, can you? But it will be. All sorrow will be gone, all tears wiped away. Best of all, we’ll enjoy blessed fellowship with our God and Savior.
But for now, I’ll savor the last of these gorgeous summer days and give thanks for so many wonderful memories. Do you have a favorite memory from the summer of 2016?
