7:00 am
Gray mist looms over corn and fallow field
Atmosphere crouches:
thick with heat
Yet His Golden Radiance perforates:
ubiquitous, unruffled
Sparkling up dewy weeds:
fields of sapphire, topaz, and diamond
Wrens are trilling call-and-response:
a liturgy of praise
God is in His Heaven
He is what is right in the world.
It has been 100+ degrees for days. The birds, mammals, and humans are stymied and aghast.
The bugs, on the other hand, are engaged in non-ending joyful pandemonium. The cicadas, crickets, and katydids are rejoicing loudly day and night.
I think that God made blasting hot weather because he loves his insects (and perhaps the reptiles, too). All year long these creatures just muddle along. Then for a few blazing weeks each summer, their body temperature hits a point where they feel fully alive.
And what do they do with all that joy?
They praise God all day and night.
So, I can be like the spoiled child at someone else’s birthday party. Or I can be happy that it is someone else’s turn.
What can you do during hot, summer days to remember God’s handiwork and be thankful for someone else’s turn?
Prayer of Petition
When my firstborn was just three years old, he had a burning desire:
He wanted cowboy boots.
Those who have had three-year-old boys know that cowboy boots are an important part of developing a young man’s identity. (That is, if you are from the Deep Woods Down South.)
Every time we drove into town to the local JM Fields, he would see cowboy boots. “I need those boots,” he would matter-of-factly explain.
The only problem was that their $4 price tag was way above our budget back in those days. There was no hope for me to be able to get him those boots- kind of sad for a young mom.
So, I told him that he would have to pray about it. I sat with him while he bowed his little strawberry-blonde head and simply asked God for those cowboy boots.
Then a fun thing happened. A short time later, we were visiting a young couple from church. It was a nice visit and Micah had been very well behaved. As we were leaving, the wife handed him a gift- 4 dollar bills.
She had no idea what he had been praying, but he knew God had heard and answered his prayer. He got his cowboy boots.
I don’t think God was concerned about Micah’s prayer format. He just wanted to bless the kid.
The kid was blessed and praised God for it.
Can you think of a time God blessed you in answer to a request (“prayer of petition” is the theology word for it)? Did you feel like praising God?
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