Our Father in Heaven,

You created each of the seasons – spring, summer, fall and winter. Because You created them, I can imagine that you love them all equally. My personal preference, however, is summer, spring, fall, with winter a distant last.
I love the warm days of summer, with it staying light to nearly 9 pm in late June. My standard “uniform” in summer is a t-shirt, shorts and KEEN sandals. But where we live, I may only be able to enjoy the warm weather six months of the year, at the most.

So, there is a certain degree of sadness for me as we approach the end of summer. Schools are already back in session, which significantly increases the traffic on our street, and the population in our community. Soon, we will awaken to cool mornings and experience cool evenings, which reminds us of the long, dark and cold winter that awaits us.
Though I am sad for the end of summer, we know that we will get to enjoy a colorful fall season, with joyful fall festivals, sweaters, football, cider, pumpkins, raking leaves, and everything else that goes with this wonderful season. And we shouldn’t forget to notice the beauty of the changing sunlight and lengthening shadows.
It seems like it was just last week that I saw on my daily walks the first signs of the green corn and soybean plants breaking through the fields of our rich Illinois soil. But of course, it’s actually been much longer than that. Soon, those fields will be harvested, and will lay bare until next spring, should the Lord not return by then.
The leaves on the trees that I see on my walks will be changing from green to red, orange and yellow. The burning bushes, and the red sunset maple in our back yard, planted in my mom’s memory twenty-eight years ago, will soon be a spectacular show of red.
Father, you are so faithful. Each day the sun comes up in the morning, and sets in the evening. Throughout the year we get to experience the seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter. The great hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness” by Thomas Chisholm tells us:

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

We thank you for your faithfulness, your wonderful creation and for the upcoming fall season. We thank you for the new morning mercies you provide us:

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

In Jesus’ precious name I pray,
Amen