So today was a day where I am grateful for taking in God’s beauty in several different ways. Today was one of those vacation days that did not go quite according to plan. Started with words from Revelation as I near the end of the New Testament of destruction and darkness and the continued through several other things that I don’t need to detail here but again, did not go according to plan. But there was beauty in things I saw and words I heard that held me fast through the day.
As I did a nearly 4 mike walk this morning around a nearby lake the sun had just risen and the light on the pond was beautiful. There was a slight misting on the pond that reflected the light that made it look like flame was on the water. I listened to my daily Calm podcast and Tamara Levitt shared about practicing “non-doing” - simply sitting quietly and emptying the mind. So I simply sat down n a bench and watched the tiny easily-missed ripples on the water and dragonflies zipping amongst the reeds. As I slipped into a place of deep stillness, I was stirred by a fish that splashed right near the shore. Finally came these words that I heard from John Philip Newell on Rob Bell’s podcast about discovering and seeing the divine beauty within each of us that the Gospel points to.
I do not believe that the Good News is given to tell us that we have failed or been false. That is not news and it is not good. We already know much of that about ourselves. We know we have been false even to those we most love in our lives and would most want to be true to. We know we have failed people and whole nations throughout the world today who are suffering or who are subjected to terrible injustices that we could have done more to prevent. So the Gospel isn’t given to tell us what we already know. Rather, the Gospel is given to tell us what we do not know or we have forgotten. And that is…who we are, sons and daughters of the one from whom all things come.
So as several parts of my day went sideways through the hours that followed, these blessings held me fast - to see, to feel, to hear, to rest and to rejoice in Jesus’ movement in my life and in the world.
Thanks be to God.
