July is here!  Can you believe we are now officially halfway through this year.  Wow it goes by fast.  Soon the kids will be returning to school but not yet, so let’s have some fun with them in the hot days of summer!  After all, fall will be here soon enough but for now let’s break out the suntan lotion and hit some pools with the kids.  Who’s with me?

 

For some reason when I think of summer fun I am reminded of children and puppies.  Speaking of puppies, I remember when our little bulldog named Jazz saw her first squirrel.  We brought her home when she was only 8 weeks old.  It was evening when we got back from picking her up with the breeder.  So I waited until the next morning to take her outside to introduce her to her own back yard.  It will be her oasis as well as other things, I think you know what I mean, but I am keeping this newsletter PG so we will go on with the story.  We are playing together getting to know one another, when suddenly, a squirrel jumps down from the fence into our yard along with a few of his friends.  Jazz looks at them from a distance wondering what she is looking at, then without notice she takes off running as fast as her little chubby 8-week-old legs can take her towards the squirrels.  The squirrels saw her coming toward them without any fear in their eyes.  They waited until she must have thought “I got them” then without any effort at all they turned toward the huge oak tree in our yard and leaped unto the tree as only squirrels can and with a blink of an eye they where up and gone, vanishing over the fence.  I watched Jazz process what she had just witnessed and in that moment she decided to try to do what she just saw the squirrels do. She squatted and with every inch of her being made a jumping movement, but unlike the squirrels she fell forward doing two somersaults and ended up face down on the ground.  It was so comical I laughed until I cried.  The puzzled look on her face said it all.  She couldn’t understand what had just happened.  It was at that moment she found out she was not a squirrel but a bulldog.  Like Jazz we too need to find our place in this life.  We may not be able to sing in the choir but there are other things, giftings we do have.  We must find our lane and stay in it and glorify God with how and who he has created us to be.  When Jazz and I came back inside, I believe she looked at me as we sat together on the couch thinking to herself “I’d like to see one of those squirrels do this!”

 

Happy with my lane!

 

 

Pastor Rick