Pickerelweed, Snake Warrior Island Natural Area, Miramar, Florida, September 2013
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16
Humility, servanthood, welcome, acceptance, unconditional love, simple acts of grace, forgiveness, a life that embodies both God's justice and generous acts of charity...how does your life leave people glorifying God? Does it surprise you that from the moment that you were claimed and redeemed by God in Holy Baptism that became your opportunity and promise?
Snake Warrior Island Natural Area, Miramar, Florida September 2013
The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
You open your hand,
satisfying the desire of every living thing
Psalm 145:15-16
As I turn every increasingly towards 50,
I am beginning to learn what it means,
that God satisfies all of our desires,
that therein contentment may be found,
hunger of a like unsatisfied for so many years
being sated.
I struggle still, and on,
yet peace is setting up shop upon that ground
of want and the season will inevitably turn.
White Peacock Butterfly, Snake Warrior Natural Area, Miramar, Florida, September 2013
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
Luke 9:57
If the biblical witness speaks a word to flesh out
the fullness of what the Lord means here, then
we will need to suspend our own judgment,
prepare to be discomforted,
set aside our own pre-conceived notions of things,
even what the scriptures say,
as we bring ourselves and our prejudices to them;
for to follow the Lord is to go
into places of brokenness, not of logic;
of pain and pathos,
places of a truth that we have denied to ourselves
that the Lord desires for us to hear and perhaps
embody hope.
Railroad Vine, Snake Warrior Island Natural Area, Miramar, Florida, September 2013
For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.
Matthew 18:20
Pickerelweed, Snake Warrior Natural Area, Miramar, Florida, September 2013
...until a spirit from on high is poured out on us,
and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.
Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
The effect of righteousness will be peace,
and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
Isaiah 32:15-17
That Spirit has been poured out,
and we have been called as co-workers with Christ
for the work of peace;
each one of us in ways small and great,
called to the blessed task of peacemaking.
This often means that we will be a people against the grain of public sentiment, against the tide of governments, and subject to pubic scrutiny for taking a stand for faith instead of fear.
Trinity Butterfly Garden, September 2013
..for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers — all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:16-17
Angel, Trinity Butterfly Garden, September 2013
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
Romans 8:26
Prayer can be an intimidating thing for some -
what to say? The right words,
Talking to God,
Listening.
Should we ask,
for ourselves, for others,
how much, how great a thing;
what is the line we should not cross?
Will God answer?
Always? Often? When?
The Spirit comes to our aid in this,
our worries, our fears, our hesitation
unburdened, we to place all care and trust
in one who knows the heart of God, indeed!
And we to just pray, simply and honestly.
It is enough, always enough.
