I reach out for your commands, which I love, that I may meditate on your decrees. Since my first visit to a botanical garden our our road trip to the Great Lakes, I have come to love them and seek them out every chance I get. Even though each one that I have visited is unique they each share some of the same characteristics: they are highly planned, have a variety of plants, are well maintained, and have something of beauty for every season. Botanical gardens are designed for a community and open to the public, some with a fee and some are free. Either way any one who wants to visit is welcomed.
I have come to see the Psalms like a botanical garden. The book of Psalms is highly planned and organized, although it is a little hard to see this if you just read a few. There is a whole gamut of emotions from joy to sadness, from fear to trust, from anger to praise. No matter your age or what emotion or struggle you are facing you can find a psalm. You can find beautiful word pictures even if you are not a poet. To really understand the Psalms you have to meditate on them which takes the kind of daily work that it takes to maintain a garden. So the next time you get a chance to visit a botanical garden or read the psalms, enjoy their beauty and learn the lessons of each. Prayer Great Creator, Thank you for the Psalms. Give us the discipline to study them to see their beauty and through them to see you. Amen
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Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. These are just the regular wildflowers you see in abundance in fall meadows. Some would even call some of them weeds. Most people drive the loop in Cades Cove in hopes of seeing wildlife or to see historic buildings. They drive right past the fields of these small wildflowers. This day I stopped to just look at both the beautiful clear blue skies and the fields filled with the nothing special but still beautiful wildflowers.
We all experience times in our lives when we feel small and unimportant. I think that maybe this is how the early Christians of Asia Minor felt. They were probably small in number and living a lifestyle that was radically different from their society. Peter wrote to remind them that even though they were looked down and even persecuted they each were important enough to have been given a gift - not a gift for themselves but a gift to use to serve others. They and we are useful in God’s eyes. We each have been given gifts to use to serve others. Our service may not ever been noticed but each small act of love makes a difference. Prayer Lord Jesus Speak to our hearts and show us how we can use the gift you have given us to serve others today. Remind us that we are loved and important in your eyes. Amen I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; We had gone to the top of the mountain to see the sunset. Since we got there in plenty of time I found a good position and sat down to wait. I hadn’t come here with any thought of taking images of butterflies, but a Monarch landed right in front of where I was sitting. Most of the time butterflies never stop moving so getting an image of one is not that easy. This clover must have been just what the Monarch needed and so it stayed on the clover for quite awhile. As I looked through my camera with my lens zoomed in, I was amazed at its intricate design of this butterfly. It reminded me that the God who made this beautiful small creature loves and cares for me. Not only does God love us but he promises to teach us his ways. He always counsels us and looks at us, no matter how small or unimportant we feel, with loving eyes.
Prayer Great God Today may we seek your instruction, trust your love and be open to your counsel. Amen Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High It had been a beautiful day in the mountains so we decided we would go on up the mountain to catch a sunset. The closer we got to the gap the more the clouds rolled in. We almost turned around but decided to drive on through the clouds. When we got to Clingmans Dome the clouds cleared away to the west. We had the most unusual sunset - with high clouds and then some low clouds gently touching the mountains with a bright sun in a clear sky between.
As I watched the sun go down behind the clouds this great feeling of home and safety came over me. I just knew that I was watching God create something beautiful in that sunset - the one I didn’t expect. I don’t live on top of the mountain but I can always rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will put my trust in God and he will be my refuge, my home. Prayer Almighty God I want to always live in your shadow. Wherever I live, on top of mountains or in deep valleys, you have been and will always be my refuge, my strength, and my home. 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