Outside has taken on a new meaning for me. Over the last few weeks, I’ve tried to begin and end each day outside. Most of my mornings are spent listening to birds, watching the sun come up, and attempting to notice all that is going on around me. For instance, I hear a cacophony of sounds. Though not a symphony, it is still “sounds” nonetheless. Frankly, I long to hear them. Different birds chirping, a dog barking, a distance vehicle or two, and a few other sounds that are hard to identify. They remind me of a genesis—a beginning. In the evening, I do something similar. I want to see the stars, the moon, and listen to the sounds around me. Though completely different than the morning sounds, the evening melody is softer, more organic.
I do this because it reminds me of a natural rhythm. Something basic, fundamental to creation that all need to clutch in periods of great disruption. Everyone needs a cadence to the day particularly when the normal flow to life is in disorder. Those environmental-natural sounds and imagines help connect one to something larger and grander than the immediate.
Perhaps Psalm 8 was written in a time of disruption. I’m not sure one will ever know the stimulus the pushed the writer’s pen, but the words are definitely helpful when things seem out-of-control or confusing. These words are a connection to something larger. They are a springboard, urging the reader to see beyond the immediate to what lies behind it all: A God who creates, sustains, and restores.
O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.
You have taught children and infants
to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies
and all who oppose you.
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you set in place—
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You gave them charge of everything you made,
putting all things under their authority—
the flocks and the herds
and all the wild animals,
the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
and everything that swims the ocean currents.
O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
This week’s readings:
Monday – Hebrews 12
Tuesday – Hebrews 13
Wednesday – 1 Peter
Thursday – 2 Peter
Friday – 1 John
Please Pray for:
Our ministers and their families.
Those who are unwillingly absent.
The United Methodist Church family.
Our nation and our leaders.
The World.
The Lost.
The lives of those touched by the Coronavirus.