Summer Wonderings

Boom- ba boom- ba boom... 
My puppy gallops across the yard, with fluffy, bouncing ears and a tongue flapping wildly out his smiling face. He pushes his big head through a rope diamond in my hammock. He could just go over the edge, but he insists on pushing through a hole. 
A quick "kiss" on my nose. "Hey Mom! Watch me!", I feel like he's telling me. 
And he bounds off to grab a stick, prancing around with his trophy held high. 
I read my book until the light grows too dim to see the words, then I look up, and realize I've really been missing it. Up above, the branches of the two trees who graciously hold my hammock up meet far overhead. Hearing a light, trilling song I search the mess of leaves until I spot its singer- a red cardinal. It lets me listen for a few more measures before darting off into the dusk. 
Lightening bugs start to twinkle and one almost lands on Piper's nose. He snaps at it, cross-eyed, pretending he knew it was there all along. 
Inspired by the serenity my mind starts to wander around the globe. The world isn't so big- I think. I have a dear friend who at this moment is asleep in his bed in Herne Bay, England. I can picture his back garden that he probably sat in before bed tonight, just like I"m doing. I know missionary families in a dozen countries. There are kids in Czech Republic that I've held and laughed with. I know students studying in Asia, serving God in Africa, traveling in France. Yeah- the world isn't so big- just think.. I"m just "me" and I can list 30 people I know all over its surface. 
My mind went further.
 And besides the ones I know personally- there's the people that have affected people I know. A best friend of mine lived for two years in Southeast Asia. That older couple that gave her a home? The man she bought bread from each week? The children she played with and the young girl she befriended? I'm somehow connected to them, though we've never met. 
And another close friend- he's Brazilian. His parents and grandparents and childhood friends and teachers in Brazil I've never met, yet I'm more "acquainted" with them than thousands of other Brazilians. 

Blue to pink to streaks of deepening purple. 
The sky melts into a masterpiece painting. 
And just as I had started to convince myself of my theory that the world isn't quite so big, I realize just how far off I am. 

That sunset- how is it even made? Do you know? I'm sure you can explain to me how the colors and air and light happen- but really, can you reproduce it? The lightening bug- that one, right there- how many times did it flutter its wings today? Was it in the child's jar across the street and it's tiny heart just stop racing from its near-death experience?
The trees and birds and air and people with their dogs in Louisville, Kentucky- I can try to convince myself that this world isn't so mind-blowing- but it really is just that. 
God
He spoke that sunset. He spoke it to happen and it did. 
He knows the life span of every lightening bug, not just in my yard tonight but the ones that I chased and caught when I was six the summer of 1992. 
He isn't just familiar with stories of a bakery owner in Asia- He put the love of baking into the man. 
He knows the number of hairs on my dog, and the thousands more that have already fallen on my couch and carpet! 
The cardinal glorified Him in singing that song tonight, for that was exactly what that bird was made to do. 
Piper, it being so distinctly dog-like, in digging holes, galloping after cats, laughing and panting, chasing sticks, is praising his Maker. 
Yeah- the world is big- really, really big. But I praise my Maker that He knows- no, more than knows. He spoke into being and loves and is sovereign over every beautiful bit of this earth. 
Tonight, don't miss the sky's light display. Lay down your book and just watch. And praise the Author for writing you into the world tonight.