Monday, January 11, 2021
I love the early morning when the colors of the clouds turn bright rose as the sun starts to rise. It’s a quiet time, a time to listen for the birds that are now at the feeder – a time before those pesky squirrels start eating up the bird food. The bird food store tells me that the squirrels don’t like safflower seed. They just throw it out all over the place. Squirrels are really messy eaters so I have to scoop up the seed off the back sidewalk onto the ground where the birds can get it. The deer are out in the yard as well looking for something to sustain them through the winter. And the sky moves from bright rose to kind of lilac as the sun continues to rise over the horizon. The starkness of the winter in January reminds us of the beauty of the world God has given us. Every detail matters because even the smallest branches can be seen. So every detail in our own lives matter as well. Should we not in the early morning consider how those details matter not just to us but to one another and to God?
Prayer for the Day
The light of your revelation grows among us, O God, A gleam of sunlight you have given us in the chill of January Forgetful of your sovereignty over our seasons and our fears, We remain bundled in our coldness against the brevity of winter days. Help us overcome our dusky gloom and erase the habits which freeze our hearts And teach us the joy of compassion and the warmth of love, We ask this in the name of him who is love itself, Ever Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold.
- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73
That’s what winter is: an exercise in remembering how to still yourself then how to come pliantly back to life again.
- Ali Smith American writer
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High, To declare your steadfast love in the morning; and your faithfulness by night To the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre, For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; all the works of your hands I sing for joy.
Psalm 92: 1-4