57 “Summertime and the living is easy” as the words of the lullaby from the cotton plantations in the US goes. Well summertime has arrived and for the last 24hours we have experienced what for us is a heat-wave. “Fish are jumping and the cotton is high.” I haven’t heard if the mayfly have hatched but the grass is growing high. “Your daddy’s rich and your mamma’s good looking”. Nothing like some reassuring words to lull a baby to sleep – the reality may be somewhat different! “One of these mornings you’re gonna rise up singing, you spread your wings and take to the sky.” The future is beautiful from the perspective of the innocence of youth. “But until that morning there is nothing can harm you with your daddy and mommy standing by – they are standing by, I know, don’t cry.” Safe and secure in a parents love. It’s only a lullaby but it captures a lot of our dreams of a world where the harshness of reality often feels more like wintertime! The Bible promises us the seasons: – “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Genesis 8 verse 22) The writer of Ecclesiastes reckons there is a time for every human event or activity: –

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” And in his famous poem in Chapter 3 ranges widely over human activity. From the pen of Jeremiah we have his lament over the faithlessness of Judah: – “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” On the mission of Jesus to earth the Apostle Paul writes: – “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4 verse 4) Redemption completed! Security in God’s family – not in a lullaby but in real time. I am reminded of the words of the dying Highland crofter, who was asked concerning his salvation replied, “I thatched my roof in the summertime”! There is no better time to prepare than now. Trust Jesus.