A Prayer a Day: Good morning, Lord, my back porch is a perfect place to be quiet and talk to you. It’s a perfect place to see the beauty of your creation and to thank you for all of it. Thank you for the trees and bees,for grass, birds chirping, bunnies hopping, and flowers blooming. Looking at the trees more closely, I see some are full of open green leaves, but the two walnut trees in the backyard look bare. Closer examination of the walnut trees, reveal they have buds; the buds are just tight and unopened.These differences in growth and blooming remind me of how often people are late-bloomers. I always considered myself a late bloomer professionally. I started college at 42, that was 24 years after I graduated from high school. I was a late-bloomer educationally. But, in my personal life, in the development and productivity area, I was not a late-bloomer. At 42, I had been married for 22 years, and had given birth to four children.Our lives are more complex than nut trees, most of us are late-bloomers in some area of our lives. Lord, you know how often I talk to people about you, and that they frequently tell me, “I’m not into that religion stuff.” Sometimes, they tell me they are deeply spittual, but stay out of the churches, because of the hypocrites in the churches. As a pastor I am somewhat amused, when I hear this about avoiding churches, because there are hypocrites in the churches. Lord, how could there be churches without sinners of every stripe, including hypocrites? If I know the person well enough, who is sharing about hypocrites in the church, I mention there are hypocrites everywhere there are people. Hypocrites are in Wpalmart, Kroger, Meijer, the DMV, libraries, restaurants, movie theaters, parks, doctor and dentist offices, and car dealerships. Hypocrisy is a human characteristic, so of course, there are hypocrites in the churches. I say don’t let that keep you out; you don’t let it keep you out of the stores.Lord, help us in the churches, do a better job of reaching those people, who avoid the churches. Help us meet each person, where they are and draw them with your love into your kingdom. Help us, Lord, to love those spiritual late-bloomers into relationship with you, Holy God. Come Holy Spirit and make us winsome: amen.