Wednesday, December 14, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Living in the Kingdom of God
I am the creator of the heavens, designer and maker of the earth. I did not create it to be a waste, but designed it to be lived in. I am the Lord.
 And there is no other.
So … on my walks and drives around the country, when I get out and about, God is happy for me to see his handiwork. He made the live oak trees and their tiny acorns underfoot. He made the rushing waters of Bull Creek, piling over the falls. He made green-then-yellow leaves that continue to fall, day after day into December. In this southland, the winter waits and waits and waits. Perhaps we will feel thirty degrees during Christmas week.
And I know snow is falling just a couple hundred miles north. Our friend Sandy will be driving through it in a few days on her way to her new (and old) Kansas home. God made the snow. God made the wind that blows the snow. God made the sun that melts it.
And there is no other.
Mostly when I get out and about, I go to buildings like the one I just left, made by men and women. I drive on configurations of highways made of concrete and designed by men and women. I sit comfortably enough in my white Prius, designed by humans, and listen to stories and music created and performed by humans. God is behind it all.
Because there is no other.
So my “grammar of gratitude” extends beyond what we call “nature” to everything that’s made by us. And we ourselves are made by God too, you know. Fearfully and wonderfully made.
And here’s the thing. God loves it when we stop the talking and walking and driving and just sit there in the noonday sun. Sit there and just hang out. Talk a little, listen a little, spend some time with God. Like the poet says …
Did You Notice?
Did you notice
God
standing over in the corner
or behind a tree
shy
naked
longing for your attention
hoping that you stop doing
whatever it is that preoccupies you,
keeps you from looking up
and squinting to find Her
—even if the busyness you are doing is for God—
gently, patiently, secretly hoping
you stop it
if only for a little while
to allow loving gazing at each other
holding hands
breathing each other’s breath
and remembering
really remembering
why you exist. – Clarence Heller
God’s sweet and simple way for me to prepare for Jesus’ coming doesn’t take a lot of work. Or any work at all. I can do this anywhere and anytime. And there are no opening or closing hours.
Turn to me and be safe, all you ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other. In me kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss.
(Isaiah 45, Psalm 85, Isaiah 40, Luke 7)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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