Daily Reading: 13 September
(from www.christianaid.org.uk)
Just look at the sky.
Something to read
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple.
- Psalm 19:7 from full reading Psalm 19.
Something to think about
‘What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?’ So wrote the poet William Henry Davies, and the psalmist encourages us to do the same.
Just look! Just look at the sky, blue and gold in the daytime, silver and dark at night – or grey with thunderclouds, or streaked with the rainbow of God’s covenant love. Just look, and the Creator will be revealed throughout creation.
And as we acknowledge the order and beauty of creation, so we begin to realise that God wants us to reflect that same pattern in our lives. God’s law is an expression of the delicate, life-giving structure of God’s creation, in words that we can understand.
And though the law is developed in hundreds of individual teachings, at its heart are the two commandments recognised by Jesus as ‘the greatest’: love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength, and all your mind, and love your neighbour as yourself (Luke 10:27).
Our work depends fundamentally on this understanding of God’s law. We love our neighbours, in all the practical ways we can, because we love God and are inspired by the glory of a world where God’s creation functions as it should do – where the heavens tell of the glory of God.
Something to do
Find five minutes in your day to stop and stare at something God has made, maybe an autumn leaf or a flower. What is its place in God’s creation? Think about how God values this thing, and how God values you and all creation.
Something to pray
God, you bring order out of chaos
and shape this universe according to your will.
Help us to recognise the beauty of your presence
in the world around us, and to reflect that beauty
in the way we live out your holy law of love.
Amen.
Today’s contributor is the Rev Dr Caroline Wickens, Superintendent of the Manchester Circuit of the Methodist Church, at the time of writing.