Once Upon a Summer Day

A few minutes ago, I heard the song "Remember" by Watermark, from their album "Constant." The opening verse captured me:

"Must have been You out in the back yard
The mystery began in the heart of a child
I didn't know 'til now, that even then I knew You
And there were songs back then
There was a love affair"*

Like Remember's songwriters Christy Nockels and Nathan Nockels, as a child in the back yard, I had a sense of God, some kind of awareness, although certainly not in the convoluted, complicated and over-developed way I have perfected as an adult.

God, back then, was found when I would lie with my dog Duchess in the backyard and watch the birds gather for their migration south, the cool, soft grass cushioning us.

God, back then, was the sound of Duchess panting quietly beside me, the rise and fall of her soft fur beneath my hand as she breathed, the faithfulness of her presence.

God, back then, was found in tracing the amazing journey of a single ant through a forest of blades of grass.

God was the endless sky, the colors on the clouds at sunset, the maple seeds twirling to the ground, the sound of church bells pealing a few blocks away, the scent of autumn leaves, the first taste of winter snowflakes and the first full moon on a virgin snowfall, the tulips breaking through the still cold earth in spring.

I didn't need to know, to define, to understand; only to comprehend, to take in, to relax in the beauty and serenity and wonder. It was a love affair, with its mysteries and surprises.

Now I am decades - a lifetime - away from that young boy in the backyard. I am eager to forget what I have learned in the interim and embrace what I found in the purity of those first kisses. A different dog is beside me, now. Two of them, in fact, and we are about to go for a walk in the twilight of a summer day, under a sky of changing color, past fragrant blossoms, through the coolness of evening, back in time, directly back into the heart of God.

Blessings,
David
* "Remember" Publishers: ROCKETOWN MUSIC, SWEATER WEATHER MUSIC, WORD MUSIC, LLC