God’s Green Season – Staying Connected Over the Summer
Summer brings with it a change of weather and of pace. Life both slows down and somehow simultaneously speeds up. School is out for most students, while those still in school may move into a slower-paced season of classes. Meanwhile, many families begin a full schedule of vacations, camps, community activities, and other ways to keep children busy and engaged. For those not in affluent or well-connected families, summer may be a time when the days seem endless, boredom grows, and a deep longing for connection and friendships is more apparent. Summer is a time when some people are more connected to family and friends far away, while others become more isolated without the connections of school and community.
Our senses become more tantalized during the summer. Flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, children are playing outside, the sun is shining—all engaging our senses with the changing world around us. We can practice praying with our senses, perhaps focusing on each sense for two or three weeks.
- Touch. Give thanks for baptism while washing hands, bathing, or showering.
- Sight. Focus on the ways in which Jesus saw people and offered them compassion. Pray for the people we see/encounter, seeing/encountering them through the eyes of Jesus.
- Taste. Focus on the refreshment Jesus brings through living water. Look for ways we can refresh others’ lives, offering a “cup of cold water” in welcome. Pray for the people who grow and harvest our food.
- Smell. Think about the wheat and weeds growing together, the yeast mixed in with the flour, and the bread of communion. Imagine the journey the bread and wine took to get to us and pray for the people and environments that produced them.
- Hearing. Listen for God’s voice. Perhaps it is heard in the “sound of sheer silence,” in our hearts, or in Jesus’ admonition, “Do not be afraid.”
Summer can be a time for making connections. We can reconnect with ourselves, taking time to breathe deeply, experience stillness, and invite renewal. We can use the slower pace of summer days to reconnect with our families. Perhaps we can find energy to play with our children or gather with extended family to catch up and to remember our ancestors. During this season of growth, we can connect with creation, nurturing the green things that grow on the earth, tending them, quenching their thirst as God’s word refreshes our own weary souls.