Woke up this morning and I did not put on my cleanest dirty shirt. I put on a clean shirt. Coffee. Hello to the wife. I was up late last night because I watched the Rangers clinch at least a Wild Card berth in the playoffs, then I fell asleep on the couch. So, some more coffee. Then I stepped out front and the whole of downtown smells of flowers.

I called Danielle,

“Hey, come out here. Why does it smell like roses?”

“I don’t know.” (She’s mostly smell-blind, so I don’t know if she even smells it. But she acts like she does.)

“Is it your Bougainvillea?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

I sat down to roll a cigar. I roll cigars on my antique table which is the actual table seen in the 1930s era film Places in the Heart with Sally Field (I always have to add that part, because it’s cool.) This is just one of my forms of art. The cigar turns out really well, so I grab my lighter and my cup of coffee and I head out back into our alley.

The temperature is perfect, mid-70s, and the scent (smells like roses) is really strong in the alley. The morning glory vines have really taken over and the blooming flowers are resplendent in purple. Most of the Virginia Creeper died back during the brutal heat of summer, and some of it is just now coming back, but the beautiful purple morning glory vines are everywhere, taking advantage. I don’t even know if morning glories have a fragrance. Maybe not. But something smells like flowers and the alley is full of flowers, so I’ll be fine just using my imagination. The bees that share the alley, nestled in the wall of the building behind ours, they are sleeping in too. I don’t know if bees sleep, probably not, but they aren’t out in force – even with the flowers everywhere. During the hot days they would already be hanging on the side of the building, a bulging swarm under the Virginia Creeper trying to stay cool. Now, at night when the cool air comes, they retire inside and you only see the big piece of white comb that juts out into the alley. This morning they’re being a little lazy too.

God’s work is magnificent even when we don’t see it or notice it. The Sun Also Rises and whatnot, and the earth abides.

I look on my phone at social media and one of the Sci-fi writer guys has asked one of those questions you ask when you want engagement, and you know everyone today has an opinion. He asks, “What is light?”

I scan through the answers. A lot of jokes (The opposite of heavy.) Some pedantic scientific litanies.

I write: “That which shines into the darkness and the darkness comprehends it not.”

That’s the big thing, right there. Those bees and their comb and the morning glories and the Virginia Creeper beaten back by the heat this summer. And me and my wife of 30 years, my coffee and the scent in the air. All of these show forth the glory of God and manifest His wisdom. Some, you know, some comprehend it not.

Have a great week.

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Michael Bunker is a local columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose columns appear periodically on the website.