Awake in the wee hours

It is 8:00a.m. and here I am blogging. That's plenty early for a morning during the summer( I am not a morning person.) Actually I have been awake since about 3:30 due to a miserable backache. Did that sound pitiful enough or shall I work on it a little more? Anyway, it is amazing the random thoughts that come and go in the wee hours.
One of the topics I found myself pondering at 3:45 or so was how fortunate we are that God blessed us with tomatoes! I thought about all of the foods that we can make from tomatoes, praised God for homegrown ripe tomatoes, and almost fell to my knees in gratitude thinking of the plate of cornmeal breaded fried green tomatoes that I fixed myself for lunch yesterday! (I think I might have been a little hungry when I went to bed last night.)
After I exhausted the tomato topic, I thought about how blessed we are to have animals in our world. I don't count all of them as being a personal blessing( snakes, worms, lizards, frogs, spiders, creepy crawlies of any sort) but in my little corner of the world I sure love my pets! I thought of the pets we currently have or have had in the past and entertained myself for another few minutes. I even had thoughts of sadness for the unfortunate souls who due to health reasons or just plain old bad judgement who will never experience a dog lying across your feet while a cat is wrapped around your neck while another cat is lying on your pillow and kneading your scalp with loving paws. It doesn't get any better than that! Did God give us animals to take care of or did He give us to the animals to take care of?
From that topic my mind went to a more conventional one at this time of year ... patriotic things. I think of my brother at this time of year. He was killed in action from enemy fire in 1969 in Vietnam on July 3rd. ( Sarge says it was actually the 4th in our country.) I have recently been in touch with his old Sarge who was with him on that terrible day. He still carries a lot of baggage from that time and I would like to request that you pray for him and all soldiers past and present for what they go through. My brother gave his life for our country, but the ones who were able to make it home did as well. Their life will never be the same. ( I may have to pause to sing a verse of God Bless America) Anyway, Billy told his Sarge if for some reason he did not make it back home, drink a big ice cold Coca Cola and dedicate it to him. That's exactly what I plan to do. Here's to you Billy!