This morning as I opened wide the sliding glass door going out to my sun-warmed deck, I breathed in a whiff of promised spring and stopped to listen and observe.
Birds chirping, flitting to and fro,
doing what birds have done for millenniums.
Grass - a darker green than even a couple of days ago. Growing thicker and a little taller by the hour.
On my cherry trees I saw tiny, effervescent buds slightly swaying in the strong March wind.
Nature at its finest.
Then my mind wandered to the present condition of this world. The waxing worse and worse of a society bent on annihilating God or any form of authority that would dare tell it how to think, how to feel, how to act. Just this week the shooting at the high school in Ohio was heart-breaking, so senseless. Another telltale sign of humanity gone amuck.
Any news channel you tune in to will decry the same dark, desperate tone of hopelessness. And if you are one who must have his "fix" of news everyday, you might be surprised how that routine could be affecting you physically and emotionally - even spiritually.
God, who created the world long ago, did so by speaking it into existence. Today, though it may seem the whole world (order) is out of control, there is not a single thing that happens to surprise God.
He remains in control. Faithful. All-knowing. All-powerful.
Full of grace and truth.
True, wickedness seems to prevail. Evil lurks on every corner. Why? Since the beginning of time, we have ultimately chosen evil things to feed our insatiable fleshly desires instead of feeding our souls with the fulness of Him. It is man's choices, man's sins that give leeway to darkness. It is not God's desire for us. though He knew it is what we would choose. And yet He still loves us!
We should be concerned about the wickedness in the world around us - if for no other reason that we ask God what our part is in shining His light through the dark sludge of our present situation. Do not misunderstand me as saying we should bury our head in the sand and not care what is going on around us. Of course not. The world desperately needs His light. We should not spend more time staring into the darkness around us than we do in basking in the strength of the Eternal Light.
As Christians, we are His light in this dark world. But, in order to shine the brightest, might we need to spend more time basking in His Sonlight, His creation?
Are you feeling stressed? Afraid? Restless? Turn off the news and head outdoors.
Listen...the sounds of birds again. The rustling of the wind through the trees. The bright sunshine peering out of a blue sky.
I fill my lungs with fresh morning air and my breathing calms. My heart rate slows. I even smile as I let the sun warm my face and remember from whence it gets its glorious power.
Listen. Not to the news, but to God's lullaby to us.
HIS CREATION
