How I know summer's here

When I was a child, we had Vacation Bible School at church, almost as soon as school was out.

And because that was still in the time when most women didn't work outside the home, the VBS was during the day. It began at 9 in the morning, and lasted until noon.

We would line up in the mornings, on the side of the church and march into the building.

And where we lined up, there was a row of mimosa trees. And since it was early June (in the early 1960s, our schools still ended fairly early -- around the end of May), the trees would be in bloom.

When I see the gentle flowers of this tree, I know summer's here. Because this tree -- native to southern and eastern Asia -- grows widely in Piedmont North Carolina. And we are blessed these few short weeks to enjoy their beauty and their full fragrance. "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these," our Savior tells us in Luke 12.27. And since Solomon probably never made it to Iran or Korea or China, he probably never saw a mimosa tree. We get the chance.