View the post for March 2 for an explanation of my theme for Lent. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. We arrived at Badlands National Park at the end of the tourist season. The summer and fall crowds were gone and most of the services in park would be closed or cut back to a bare minimum the next week. So when we made it to the usually crowded parking lot for the three most used trails and overlooks in the park there was no one there. No one even showed up the whole time we watched the sun rise and experienced the beauty of golden hour. Before I started seeing God’s world through my camera lens I didn’t make it a point to get up before dawn just so that I could see the sun rise. My photography developed that habit in me as it has developed many other habits that lead me to see beauty. Now I see things that I never would have seen before. This day that habit payed off. I took image after image surrounded by the magnificent beauty of the wilderness that I never expected to see.
David wrote Psalm 63 when he was in the wilderness of Judea. Although we don’t know for sure, many commentators think that he wrote this during the time when his son, Absalom, was trying to take the throne. David was running for his life from his own son. He was in the wilderness facing one of the most difficult times in his long life. It was his habit of worship that reminded him of the many times he had worshiped in the sanctuary. It was those memories that would sustain him in the wilderness where he found himself. As the habits developed through my photography have taught me to see beauty in unexpected places, so our habits of worship will sustain us in the wilderness time of our lives. Like David we will remember the times when we have seen God’s power and glory in our worship and know the wonder of his love for us, even in the wilderness. How has the habit of worship sustained you? Prayer Lord God We come, wherever we are, to worship you again. May our lives glorify you this day. Amen (You can see more images from that day in a video I made on the Songs 3 page of my site.)
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View the post for March 2 for an explanation of my theme for Lent. And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” I could tell that it had been there a long time and it wasn’t the first one that I had seen on the trip. I just didn’t know that sagebrush bloomed as it beamed like fire in the warm, golden-hour sun. I found it there by the shelter that early morning in the wilderness.
As I found my ‘burning bush’ that morning, the Lord found Moses in the wilderness through something common yet transformed. Moses was in the wilderness because he had run as far away as he could leaving the ways of Egypt and his people behind. He had married and started a new life here in the wilderness. On this day he was out doing his ordinary job of shepherding when he noticed it, that common bush now transformed. This encounter with God in the wilderness was the beginning of a new way of life for him. It meant that he would have to go back and face his old one. He did not want to go and made many excuses for why he wasn't the one God should choose. Even with the miracle of the burning bush and hearing God’s voice he still tried to say no to God. Ultimately he did follow God’s call out of the wilderness and accepted the mission God had for him. And with the call came a promise that he would make a return trip to this very place, Sinai. On this return trip God would be leading Moses and the people of Israel to freedom through the wilderness. Prayer Lord of the Wilderness Break into our lives this day with the mission you have for us. Lead us through the wilderness to the place you have promised, the place where we will live with you. Amen View the post for March 2 for an explanation of my theme for Lent. The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; Sunrises are quiet times. Many times you may be the only one at your location. You rise early in expectation of what you will see in the sky. Sometimes the colors fill the whole landscape while other times the sun remains behind dark clouds. There is nothing that you can do to make the colors appear or the sun rise above the clouds. You must just sit and wait in the quiet for the light to transform, little by little, the view before you. .
We need quiet times like these, times to seek God in silence. The poems of Lamentations are from the heart of one who had seen the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple of God. His grief was great there was nothing he could do. So he sat in silence and waited quietly. We all find ourselves in times like this, in the silence of the wilderness. It is hard to sit and wait quietly; but, like the poet ,we can trust our God who comes to us in the wilderness. When we sit quietly with him in the darkness, he will gradually transform our hearts as the sun fills the landscape with beauty. Prayer Lord God We wait on you in the beauty of silence. Fill our hearts today with your love. Amen The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform. The rock formations of the Badlands stand clear and distinct from the sky. Their cliffs are sharp and dangerous. The vegetation is sparse and water is hard to find. This is the wilderness - not a place we want to visit. That is what I thought until we took our last road trip to the Dakotas. Surprisingly, while the land was harsh I found beauty there. I also found quietness and time to think. In the scriptures the wilderness many times is a place of clarity, a place of finding a sense of mission and purpose.
Sometimes people found themselves in the wilderness not of their own doing; but other times we read God led people into the wilderness. Such is the story of Aaron and Moses. Moses had meet God in the wilderness and was on his way to fulfill the mission God set for him there. Now God was sending Aaron to meet his bother Moses in the wilderness to find the mission that God had for them. During this season of Lent I want to explore what it means to be in the wilderness. My posts during this season will include scripture about being in the wilderness and images of the wilderness I found in the Dakotas. I pray these images and scripture will help us see the beauty and clarity that can only be found in the wilderness. What does being in the wilderness mean to you? Prayer Lord God of the Wilderness Clarify our vision of you and the purpose you have for us this day. Amen |
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Soli Deo Gloria,
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan