Devotion 33
Spring Song
I'm crazy about spring! So crazy about it that in January I put a large bouquet of spring flowers on my dining room table in a large cobalt blue vase — artificial of course!
And in my sunroom my Poinsettias still bloom — all real
I will not give in to the gloom of winter.
But my blood surges through my veins when I drive the "highways and byways," soaking up the glorious colors of the first daffodils and forsythias, the leading ladies of the spring production.
I eagerly succumb to Spring Fever. "Do I have to?" I whine as I face most tasks.
I'm not a sun worshipper in the usual sense of the word. But I love to sit in our sunroom, watching the sun rise over the mountain, casting its glow and color across the water before it bounces through my window. Early morning sun is very bright — so bright in fact that I don my sunglasses as I sit in my warm robe with a cup of tea at the ready. Often times I run for my camera while the light is just right. They pass so quickly, the glow and the color that bathes my morning in the glory of God.
When the sun finally gets too bright, I switch positions, sitting with my back to the rising sun so it can warm my muscles as I bend to various tasks: journal entries, morning devotional book entries, special notes and cards, the calendar for the day.
The ducks and coots float by, looking hopefully toward shore for the sign of some kind-hearted soul with bread or grain to help them through until the Spring cafeteria reaches its normal fare. "Not at 6:30 in the morning, Fellas!"
Birds used our feeders for morning snacks until crows and starlings decided they belonged there with the mourning doves, the chickadees, the finches, the Juncos, the Carolina wrens, and the cardinals. The squirrel(s?) — who can know how many when they come one by one? — I can tolerate them long as they have a modicum of good manners to leave something for others or until I drive them off with an explosive entrance onto the deck and order them to leave. Sometimes they even scamper a little when they realize that I really mean it.
The beauty of this world takes my breath away.
I recently heard an interview on TV with a scientist who had just finished research concerning life in outer space. His conclusion: We are all there is.
Why? Because of the peculiar characteristics of the environment of earth, he said. In particular he remarked about the fact that Jupiter protects us from the full impact of the sun, allowing the earth to provide an atmosphere in which evolution can take place.
"Hello!" I yelled — very politely — at the tube. "In the entire universe there is only one environment like ours, and you think it happened by accident?"
I look at the world with all its wonders. I look at myself: my mind, my body, my spiritual and emotional makeup, and I can't find enough faith to believe that some how, some way, it all just happened — and here we are!
Nature teaches us so much about God. If I can't figure it out for myself, the Bible tells me so.
"I am fearfully and wonderfully made," Psalm 139:14 says. For example, I never have a cut or a bruise that I do not marvel at the way it heals in this God-created body.
"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the (earth) showeth his handiwork," Psalm 19:1 says. The rising of the run and moon above my mountain reaffirm that.
And how about the rest of the 139th Psalm? "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from the presence?...If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there shall Thy hand leads me, and thy right hand shall hold me...How precious also are your thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them? If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand...?*
Talk about God with us!
Oh, yes, I'm crazy about spring and the beauty it brings with it, not just to my eyes, but to my soul. It's a trumpet call to me in celebration of the renewal of life over and over again. My heart responds:
"This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it!"**
* Psalm 139:7, 9, 17-18
** Psalm 188:24
For Further Consideration:
Psalm 19
Psalm 139
Psalm 8:3-4
Psalm 148
Job 12:7-10
Job 38:1-14, 31-33
Matthew 6:25-34
Wings For Worship
God, your creation speaks to me;
Your planets praise you constantly.
Your power in its timeless swing
Is ageless in its witnessing.
Creation flows so flawlessly;
It forms a firmer faith in me.
In global glorious I preview
The sovereign power that is you.
The earth in its rotating rhyme
Repeats the tempo of all time.
The water, wind, the timely tides
Know where their perfect paths abide.
And as the spinning planets hum
With poise and purpose round the sun,
A spiritual quickening repeats
That God and man in Christ may meet.
Every creature in creation,
Needs the Saviour for salvation;
The soul's too slow to keep apace;
Man needs the wings of perfect grace.
Dorothy Ruth Harris Teel
[ Home Page ][Bible Study]
