September Promises

September had always been one of my favorite months: a time of warm blue skies and "light sweater" evenings, a time of the new school year beginnings, a time of subtle beauties as summer slowly shifts into fall - changing leaves and changing skies, scurrying animals gathering up stores for winter, final harvests in the garden, scents of woodsmoke on cool evenings, apples and pumpkins for cooking and preserving.

September is when my younger brother, Tommy, was born - and when he married.

It is also the month in which he died...which, for awhile, took away the magic of September. 

But life is cycles of change, of birth and death and rebirth. Tommy is not here...yet did he not return from whence he came? As I believe in the Resurrected Christ, I know that Tommy's passing is yet another turn in the circle of seasons, another change in the forms of Life - which know only change. I know that as Summer turns to Fall and then Winter - seasons of decay and death - that the promise of Spring - of Life and Light - stands. I know that in the darkest hour, my Saviour is with me...even when I cannot "see" Him. Even when I cannot "feel" him.

And so September is once again my favorite part of summer. And as I shed my tears of sorrow on Sept 2 (Tommy's birthday) and Sept 11, I recall the Promise of September. The Promise of Grace and Redemption.

The Promise of a sacrificial Love so great that it easily carries me and my loved ones.