Well today is the day when we have equal time of exactly day and night here on the edge of the Kalahari Desert - sunrise is 6.10am and sunset is 6.10 pm!
But it is also about the middle of September which, in Australia I was taught was the month that marked the beginning of Spring! It is the season emerging from the cold of winter when all the plants start flowering and fresh green growth is sprouting everywhere!
It is supposed to be like an opposite of Autumn - known as 'Fall' in the USA, that comes before winter.
However, this year for us the weather seems a bit confused.
We had a mild winter with unusual days of rain. And no days, as we usually would do, below zero degrees, and we only had one day that was almost zero degrees C.
So it wasn't until after the end of 'winter', and some warmer days were followed by a short but later 'colder snap' a couple weeks back at the beginning of September, that the leaves of the trees started to turn red and fall, carpeting the dirt and rocks beside our house in a carpet of beautiful colour.
And it is only now that the tree outside our window and most other trees in the bush around us, have become basically leafless!
Spring is almost not a season at all here. We just skip it altogether!…especially this year it seems!
Instead, we go from 'winter' into 'windy', and 'windy' is 'hot windy'! It is dust storms and super low humidity (as you can see from the first photo above saying humidity as only 6% and since I took that screen capture on my phone it later dropped to 4%), and high temperatures! It's when you wash your hair and it is air-dry in just minutes and to get croutons you just leave bread on the counter for an hour!
Like today…
Maximum temperature 37 or 38 degrees C with single figures humidity in the afternoon. - same as yesterday - and predicted to continue for a few more days yet, before the Max temp. might drop a couple of degrees later in the week. Friends further north are already experiencing temperatures over the 41 degree celcius mark! And even just the other side of the city from us registered 41 degrees!
And this is just the 'warm up' to summer itself! October is usually the hottest month of the year! I think we are in for a scorcher!
But its good to be reminded that despite what we feel is topsy-turvy confusion with the seasons, and the world's fears of 'climate change', our hope and trust is not in what 'looks confusing', but we can press on in peace with our hope and trust in the Creator. We don't have to fret and worry about 'what will become of us'? We can go into the day, the week, the year, the future, with confidence knowing that our times and the seasons are in His hand. Our hope is secured in eternity in Christ.
Whether the day is hot, cold, cold, windy, dry, wet, or whether leaves are falling at the expected time or not, we can trust in the Lord.
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk 3:17-18
No comments:
Post a Comment