By Jan Penton-Miller

It’s hard to believe that summer vacation is almost over, but we all realize that the break from school is much shorter than it once was. When I was a child summer days seemed to last forever, and the weather had cooled when school finally rolled around.

I can only imagine young men at football practice in this weather. The heat is absolutely oppressive most days and yesterday after church was no exception. Mike and I came home, had lunch, and lazed around inside for most of the afternoon.

After a while of relaxing and reading I had had enough of the indoors and dared to step on the back porch to water a few of my plants. I quickly gave up that idea and returned to the air-conditioned comfort. Soon, however, that air-conditioned comfort was too much of a good thing.

“Mike, I’m tired of sitting in this house. Let’s get out and do something!”

“It’s almost too hot to breathe outside,” he answered.

“But it will be so much cooler on the water. That boat is a pretty expensive toy, and it’s been a while since we have taken her out. We probably need to take something to wipe the seats and clean spider webs anyway.”

With a little persuasion we were soon on our way to the marina. It’s only a 3 or 4 minute walk, but the air was stifling so we hopped in the truck. As we rolled up to the marina boats and people were everywhere.

The short walk to our boat and a quick look made me glad I had brought something to clean with. Mike and I made quick work of wiping down the seats and getting rid of those pesky spider webs that seem to appear almost overnight.

After just a few minutes we had sweat dripping and could hardly wait to feel the cooler air. It hasn’t rained at our house in days, but as we set out a rather ominous looking cloud formed in the distant sky.

Mike thought it was going in the opposite direction from us so we untied the ropes, secured them on board, and slowly putted through the no wake zone. We ran our little boat hard to the other end of the lake, and I was totally enjoying the breeze. It was warm, but it was cooler than sitting still.

When we made the turn by the dam to head in the other direction we saw that the storm was almost on top of us. The wind had changed bringing dark clouds all around us. Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed, and the warm air cooled several degrees in minutes.

We knew that we had better speed to the other end of the lake and safety. We made it back to the dock and tied the boat just as the rain began to pelt down.

I’m so thankful that the storms we all go through in this life may catch us off guard, but they never take our Savior by surprise.

Write to Jan Penton-Miller at jpentonauthor@gmail.com