“Oh, Tom, we have a summer place, don’t we?” I squealed over the loud music. He grinned, and nodded.

We were cruising about 70 miles an hour this past Sunday on a country road, well, maybe  50 around the curves. Music just sounds better in the Corvette, and I was tiptoeing in a  world of younger memories.  Andy Williams began crooning as only Andy Williams can, A Summer Place; suddenly the realization struck me that Tom and I, indeed, live in a summer place. So interesting, perhaps for the first time… I heard every word and knew the truth of the song. (Please click past the skip ads and listen to this again…)

https://youtu.be/9SeDGvfR0HU

Curving around piles of snow, I imagined our summer place, and giggled.

Because our ‘summer place’, your ‘summer place’ is anywhere.  It is where we live, where we give and receive love:

There’s a summer place Where it may rain or storm , Yet I’m safe and warm For within that summer place Your arms reach out to me And my heart is free from all care. For it knows There are no gloomy skies When seen through the eyes Of those who are blessed with love And the sweet secret of A summer place Is that it’s anywhere When two people share All their hopes All their dreams All their love And the sweet secret of a summer place Is that it’s anywhere When two people share All their hopes All their dreams, all their love. (words by Mack Discant)

There are only six million summer beach homes and mountain cabin retreats in the United States these days, leaving millions of us without a perpetual place of peace and security… IF we only find it in a ‘summer place’.

Immediately my thoughts escaped to another place, my ‘anywhere’ refuge, my secret place. Each and every believer has found this place, the place we are always… at home.  We, who make a home with the Lord, live in the shelter of mercy and grace, will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  Psalm 91:1Not only do I dwell in a physical summer place, my anywhere place, as Tom and I share “all our hopes, all our dreams, all our love”, I live in constant awareness of my  other secure refuge. True, this song is for lovers, but on another level, the truth shouts of our only Shelter. There is a place where we share our hopes and dreams with Him who loves us perfectly. Anyone can enjoy this anywhere place… at home alone, with a spouse or with  family.

For an instant, the dirty snow piles bundled closely together blackened the brightness and reminded me of sadness and heartaches… but the lyrics ring out “in rain or storms, I am safe and warm,’ so I am comforted to know … Lord, You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations, Psalm 90:l

Remain in Me, and I will remain in you, so quotes Jesus in John 15:4.

This idea of remaining intrigues me— I am to stay, dwell, abide… to make my home with the One who loves me most. The one who gave His life for me.  How much safer can I be?

… at home… ANYWHERE.