Summer has a whole new meaning for me this year. Well for several reasons. First of all, I just retired from the working world! Yep, the days stretch on and on and what am I supposed to do now? I'm still pondering that. We have a new member of our family and she is cute and adorable and, if the truth be known, rather time consuming (not that I'm complaining!). We are also going to be moving. And so we sit amongst boxes and tape and empty shelves and frantic glances around the rooms and wonder, what happens now?
In my email inbox, I get a daily devotion from the Lutheran Seminary. Sometimes I wonder about the person who wrote their devotions. Their ruminations seem so filled with the Spirit and seeing the world through some "holier" lens than I. They seem to be able to capture the essence of the Holy Spirit while I'm sweating and loading up yet another box to take to Goodwill or the church for donating. I don't feel holy or spiritual or particularly thankful when I wake up with a sore back from lugging something out of the crawlspace to decide whether we want to keep it or not.
But just this morning, in one of the devotional author's writings, they included the words to the hymn, "For the Beauty of the Earth." And just for a few blessed minutes, I sat on the deck and looked at the birds swooping over the trees, listened to the cicadas and watched a butterfly land on a plant and thought, "yeah, the world is really a beautiful and wonderful place that the Lord gave to us." And I felt holier than I have felt for a very long time.
Let us thank God for the beauty of the earth, the sky, the sea and whatever else we're looking at today. It's a wonderful gift we've been given and I am so thankful today. Amen for sure!
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