Dec 21, 2016 | Advent, nature, psalm
The heavens sing to the earth: “The LORD is greatly to be praised.” I’ll sing too. The fields boast with joy: “God is sovereign over the earth.” I want to shout it too. The winds twirl with the trees: “The LORD is coming, coming,...
Dec 16, 2016 | Advent, nature, prayer, thanksgiving
the heartache and the weariness and the “to do” list and the brokenness and the starling with its beautiful iridescence tapping at our window, seeking a shelter from the winter wind the frustration and the guilt and the fear and the news and the faraway...
Dec 9, 2016 | Advent, nature, prayer
as natural as beauty to a crocus as natural as wonder to an infant as natural as silence to the cemetery as natural as perspective to the endless ocean so is your praise to creation so is your justice to the nations so is your faithfulness to grace and mercy on Isaiah...
Dec 7, 2016 | Advent, images of God, mystery, nature, prayer, vocation
No amount of straining or swimming, of longing or praying can free me from the currents of life that I think myself so adept in navigating. For the stream runs on without a care and the storms come (inevitably, invariably) to show off their lack of care and deference....
Aug 19, 2016 | images of God, nature, prayer
Bless the LORD, o my soul, and forget not the One who instructs your heartbeat by the pulsing dance of starlings. Bless the LORD, o my soul, and forget not the One who teaches your soul in the stillness of the great blue heron. Bless the LORD, o my soul, and forget...
Aug 5, 2016 | images of God, nature, prayer
You surprise me, Summer Storm — though I saw you slowly building in the west, suddenly you descend amid upturned leaves and clouds piled high across the face of the sun. I know better than to fail to keep a watchful eye on your coming but no matter: you are here...