Ed, my neighbour next door, has been able to combine some winter wheat. That has meant an unusual degree of quiet from next door. Since Ed has been mostly out at his farm, it is the beginning of what I call the season of tranquility. Harvesting can be early or late, but whenever it comes Ed is very scarce and the regular banter from across the fence evaporates.
Summer has also been steadily evaporating and school looms like a monster for some students and teachers. For many other pupils school is seen as a welcome opportunity to see friends on a daily basis again. It is now the time when gardeners change from wondering if gardens will grow to considering what they will do with an over abundance of beets, carrots and zucchini. It is time to savour every hot day for we know they are only teasing us. Every beautiful August day brings the shadow of frost just around the corner like an unwanted and uninvited relative on the way to stay with us. Many things we cannot change or stop like summer vanishing out of our sight.
Ed loves to tell me that the trouble with the clergy, or pastors, like me, is we are always trying to change people and things rather than just minding our own business. Personally, I have never had a lot of success changing the world, others or myself. Ed will learn, as we grow older it is a matter of trying to hold it together let alone being concerned with changing anything or anyone. Even with glasses you cannot see so good anymore and your glasses keep getting lost. Keys, hats and a host of stuff are right where you left them but only God knows where that would be exactly. Other people expect you to remember their names, but they may as well have changed them for you won't remember their names until after they are gone for an hour, day or week. The only real change being a senior citizen brings is changing a person from a fair actor into a great one. It is all the increased acting as if you heard what others said and not giving a really silly reply and even if you do still being able to look sane in spite of it.
Moses was 80 years old when called by God to bring the Hebrews out of Egypt. It took him 40 years to get them to the Promised Land and he died at 120 as the Hebrew people were ready to go into the Promised Land. Moses was involved in changing his world but it took 10 plagues from God's hand before the Pharaoh would allow the Hebrew slaves to leave Egypt. It was by God's hand that food and meat and water sustained the Hebrews in the dessert for 40 years. Without God's help there would have been no change and the Hebrews would have remained groaning as slaves in Egypt. Moses did not get to share in the Promised Land but he did have a leadership part in bringing change to his world. Moses proved that if God is with us it doesn't matter who is against us. Nothing is impossible when God is freeing us from ourselves and changing both ourselves and his world according to his will.
