The Upper Room Daily Devotional Nashville, Tennessee, United States “Outdoor Gifts from God" for Thursday, 5 February 2015 - Scripture: Psalm 19: For the music leader. A psalm of David.
1 Heaven is declaring God’s glory;
the sky is proclaiming his handiwork.
2 One day gushes the news to the next,
and one night informs another what needs to be known.
3 Of course, there’s no speech, no words—
their voices can’t be heard—
4 but their sound[a] extends throughout the world;
their words reach the ends of the earth.
God has made a tent in heaven for the sun.
5 The sun is like a groom
coming out of his honeymoon suite;
like a warrior, it thrills at running its course.
6 It rises in one end of the sky;
its circuit is complete at the other.
Nothing escapes its heat.[Footnotes:
Psalm 19:4 LXX, Vulg, Sym; MT line or string]
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.[Psalm 19:1 (NIV)]
My husband and I were towing a small boat containing three stranded fellow fishermen back to land. A short time into the trip, I looked up and was amazed to see overhead a multitude of beautiful orange and black butterflies in migration flight lines that paralleled our route. For over an hour my husband and I marveled at the delightful creatures gently fluttering toward an unseen winter home.
When we reached land and could talk with the people in the other boat, we exclaimed our joy in being directly under the butterflies the whole trip. The men looked puzzled. They said they had been so focused on their boat that they had never looked up.
That conversation made me wonder if I too am sometimes so consumed by a problem that I don’t notice a nearby, lovely blessing from God. As a result, when my soul is troubled, I have learned to pause, to take a wider view, and to appreciate the natural beauty God has created for us.
Read more from the author, here.
"Finding God in Creation"
My first awareness of God's ministering to us through nature was when I was 5 years old. I was seriously ill for several weeks and confined to bed far from my family. One dreary winter day, a bright red bird flew to a bare bush outside my small window and lingered there. As I delighted in looking at it, I suddenly realized that God was giving me a message of hope and love.
In the following years, my father and grandfather introduced me to the outdoor life of fishing, camping, and exploring. I grew up loving to be outdoors as much as indoors. Indoors had books and televisions, but outdoors had different fascinating things to offer: birdsongs, the sudden sighting of a deer, exquisitely colored sunsets. Some things were so beautiful, so direct in their deep appeal that they took my breath away.
I believe that we have an inborn attraction to nature, imprinted on us with the Divine Hand who created boundless varieties of beauty in the earth and skies. We see, we hear, we feel the deep connection to something far beyond ourselves. God calls to us throughout creation. How amazingly fortunate we are to live in an age where, for the first time in human history, we have access to technology that lets us see beyond what our eyes can discern. We view photos showing the surprising loveliness of newly discovered, colorful creatures at the bottom of the seas, and the awe-inspiring variety of gorgeous formations in the galaxies. God's wondrous creativity is continuous and boundless. When we open ourselves up to a moment of connecting to God through the world of nature, we often experience feelings of gentle peace or joy, and sometimes we are flooded with a sense of longing and gratitude.
My husband and I like to go for walks in the woods and fields. The tranquil beauty there calms us, simplifies our thoughts and makes us more aware of God's presence. In the same way, when we work with wood from the lovely cherry trees native to our region, we feel connected to God's own creations. The wood displays beautiful graining and glowing flecks that surprise and delight us. As we use our hands to shape and embellish it, we feel a quiet harmony with the One who caused it to grow.
I often sit for long periods of time meditating as I design Christian artwork to intricately carve on the cherry-wood crosses and other items we make. The designs have flowers, animals and related forms that combine our Christian faith with a love of nature. They symbolize God's love for us and the workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Some of our crosses have found their way to homes in our own country as well as Africa, France, China, and Jerusalem. It's my hope that through these simple designs derived from nature, the crosses provide a ministry to others and convey a sense of our Lord's loving presence in their lives. [Judy Walton]
The Author"Judy Walton (Pennsylvania, USA)Thought for the Day: Where do I see God’s handiwork today?
Prayer: Dear God, when we are distressed, remind us to look beyond ourselves and find comfort in the wonders of your creation. Amen.
Prayer focus: People who fish for a living
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