Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Scripture: Jeremiah 23.23-24 (Contemporary English Version)
I am everywhere [says the Lord]--
Both near and far,
In heaven and on earth.
There are no secret places where you can hide from me.
Devotion:
Every year at Trinity Youth Conference, when we spend our Wednesday at Shawnee State Park, we close our day with a picnic, and we have a special “grace” prayer that we use before that picnic. We take a moment of silence to look out across the water of Lake Shawnee, to take in the beauty of the hills and mountains around us, the vivid green of the trees dancing on the hills, and the deep impenetrable blue of the sky as it caresses the earth. We take a moment of silence to take in and give thanks for God’s creation. At the end of the silence, we give a round of applause to God for the work of God’s hands, for the joy of God’s creation. It gives me chills every year.
This Sunday, we will be having our annual Worship At The Park followed by our church picnic at
Monroeville Community Park West at our usual worship time of 10am. It will be a time when we will gather and sit in an unusual place; we will wrestle with the wind as it rustles the tablecloths, and we’ll put up with the sound system, hoping it’s loud enough to be heard. We will wear casual clothes and sing casual songs and we’ll be able to smell burgers cooking while we worship. It will be different and, for some of us, somewhat uncomfortable. But there is a reason we do this that isn’t just because we really like to eat at the picnic. We worship outside because it gives us an opportunity to rest in God’s beautiful creation, to experience the deep and intimate presence of God in the beauty of God’s creation. Like the prayer at Shawnee, the beauty and peace of God’s creation is a wonderful reminder of God’s presence that is near to us.
Our Jeremiah passage reminds us that God is always near, always with us. There is nowhere we can go that God cannot come to be with us. Where will you meet the presence of God this week? Will you join me in taking some time to appreciate God’s incredible creation, a beautiful place where we meet God? See you Sunday at the park!
I am everywhere [says the Lord]--
Both near and far,
In heaven and on earth.
There are no secret places where you can hide from me.
Devotion:
Every year at Trinity Youth Conference, when we spend our Wednesday at Shawnee State Park, we close our day with a picnic, and we have a special “grace” prayer that we use before that picnic. We take a moment of silence to look out across the water of Lake Shawnee, to take in the beauty of the hills and mountains around us, the vivid green of the trees dancing on the hills, and the deep impenetrable blue of the sky as it caresses the earth. We take a moment of silence to take in and give thanks for God’s creation. At the end of the silence, we give a round of applause to God for the work of God’s hands, for the joy of God’s creation. It gives me chills every year.
This Sunday, we will be having our annual Worship At The Park followed by our church picnic at
Monroeville Community Park West at our usual worship time of 10am. It will be a time when we will gather and sit in an unusual place; we will wrestle with the wind as it rustles the tablecloths, and we’ll put up with the sound system, hoping it’s loud enough to be heard. We will wear casual clothes and sing casual songs and we’ll be able to smell burgers cooking while we worship. It will be different and, for some of us, somewhat uncomfortable. But there is a reason we do this that isn’t just because we really like to eat at the picnic. We worship outside because it gives us an opportunity to rest in God’s beautiful creation, to experience the deep and intimate presence of God in the beauty of God’s creation. Like the prayer at Shawnee, the beauty and peace of God’s creation is a wonderful reminder of God’s presence that is near to us.
Our Jeremiah passage reminds us that God is always near, always with us. There is nowhere we can go that God cannot come to be with us. Where will you meet the presence of God this week? Will you join me in taking some time to appreciate God’s incredible creation, a beautiful place where we meet God? See you Sunday at the park!