Focus

Pay attention to the tension in your body. Let go of it and any expectations to do anything other than God’s will today. Prepare yourself to hear God’s word.

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Read

Psalm 8 (NRSV)

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is thy name in all the earth!

Thou whose glory above the heavens is chanted
by the mouth of babes and infants,
thou hast founded a bulwark because of thy foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars which thou hast established;
what is man that thou art mindful of him,
and the son of man that thou dost care for him?

Yet thou hast made him little less than God,
and dost crown him with glory and honor.
Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the sea.

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is thy name in all the earth!

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Reflect

Have you ever seen something so beautiful that you couldn’t absorb it all? It’s as if you have to take in only part of it or you might be lost in the overwhelming beauty. Shawn McDonald has a song aptly named, “Beautiful,” that incorporates themes from Psalm 8. (You can watch a video montage set to the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TaLD6nwKGg) “What am I, that you might know me?” McDonald asks with the psalmist.

I like seeing friends’ pictures of mountains, streams, rainbows, babies, and puppies—all those beautiful things that fill our hearts as well as our eyes. And yet, we always say the picture doesn’t do the subject justice. My Grand Canyon pictures from 2012 are much better than the ones taken from a different camera in 1997, but they are still nothing like the in-person vision of color, size, and majesty that steals my breath. Sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon, I felt like I might possibly disappear into the vastness of the vision before me. “The same hands that created all of this—they created you and I,” sings McDonald. Selah!

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Pray

God, thank you for beauty. Thank you for awakening and provoking our senses with all of your creation. It’s too wonderful for us to absorb. Add to that the knowledge that we are part of your beautiful creation, and we are overwhelmed. You made the sun and phases of the moon, the changing colors of the sky, the grains of sand on the beach, soaring eagles, baby fingers and toes, and puppy breath, and you know my name. What am I, what am I, what am I? I am loved. Amen.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.