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JPUSA WAXWINGS DEVOTIONS
MP
Light from the Least of Creatures
Luke 8:17 - For nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light.
Being on vacation is always a great time to explore and bird watch for me. I finally get out of the city and get a little quite and seclusion. On this particular Vacation day I had no idea that God was planning on showing me. He of course used the oddest of creatures to do it, a creature that is usually frowned upon. Some are amazed by how large it is but are put off by its “acts”. I of course am speaking of the Turkey Vulture.
Turkey Vultures let you know about death, they help you pinpoint it from a distance. You may not see it but you know its there. How? Because when you look above the horizon about 20 Vultures are circling overhead and you know something has bit the dust. Vultures have a great sense of smell and can find the dead hidden under the trees. Then the Turkey Vultures clean up the dead from our landscapes.
I started thinking about scripture "No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light.” Luke 11: 16-17
Eventually your sin finds you. The stench of your sin and your consequences find you. Sin leads to death and Vultures can actually represent light. You can see the darkness and death of a person’s Spirit when the light of scripture is showing upon it. We are then exposed, our most ugly choices, our rotten carcasses exposed for all to see. We all saw it from a distance the Vultures were circling. Now that it is exposed we must confess, not only to Christ but our Brothers and Sisters. To stand naked before God and man shows in us the darkness the blood and guts of the horror that sin leads us down. It is a battle, one we must face before God and ourselves and our congregations. It is the only way to freedom. We then can clean up our landscape for a fruitful future in bringing forth the good news of Christ. Honesty prevails and respect is giving to the gospel when it is brought on the feet of light. I hope all know your secrets because the Vultures someday will start circling.
Marty
MESSAGE FROM THE BIRDS
by GWENDALYN JESSUP
It was a Sunday morning. The side drapes were open so that, as I sat on the edge of the bed, the view through the curtains was one of peace and calm. Would it be a hot day? What would I wear to church? I was still a bit dreamy.
First one thrush arrived, settling itself on our front lawn facing the windows. Then another bird, another and another until there were six or seven thrushes looking towards me. They positioned themselves as if in a choir. Everything was quiet.
Over on the far side of our lawn were two blackbirds, watching, still, also spectators.
Then it began. As if on cue, the thrushes gave the most exciting and wonderful presentation you could ever hear. I sat entranced. Some of the birds were obviously young. They were fidgety whereas the older birds remained quite still and controlled, concentrating on their song.
I could see the vibrations in their throats as they warbled and observe the paler colours of their feathers. This was something very special. Was it a presentation just for me? Why? A strange feeling came over me.
As quickly as the performance had begun, it ended. One bird flew off, then one after another they left. There had not been time to get my husband from the kitchen. I wished he, too, had enjoyed the treat.
I recalled Genesis 1:20: 'And let the skies be filled with birds of every kind. So God created great sea creatures and every kind of fish, and every kind of bird. And God looked at them with pleasure, and blessed them all.'
I am thankful to God for the birds and for the way they can speak to my heart. I see the song of the thrushes as a great exaltation of our Almighty Creator and Lord. They help me to praise God daily, come what may.
Have You Moved?
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of, but let us encourage one another... Hebrews 10:25
When I was a little girl, I couldn't wait to go to my grandmother's house for the summer. Grandmother treated me like a princess! She served breakfast in bed to me, she let me help her make lunch, we read together, and she told me about Jesus. In the cool of the afternoons, as the pine boards of the front porch creaked under the weight of our rockers, we would sit and talk about how much we love Him.
Years later I watched my husband throw bread to the birds and squirrels in our back yard. This had become a morning ritual, usually occurring about 8:00. Within a few days of its inception, as I sipped my first cup of coffee and watched the sun rising majestically behind our house, I noticed that my husband's "wild life" (as he calls it) began to gather at about 7:45. There seemed to be an anxiousness and excitement amongst them as pairs of ducks waddled in, birds danced about in the air, and squirrels scurried from tree to tree.
"Honey, your wild life is here!" I called out to him. "Apparently they now know the time and the place for being fed!" "Keep your cat away!" he replied. He hates my cat. Last week during the Children's Sermon portion of our worship service, I watched as two precious little girls grabbed hands and ran toward the altar. They looked at each other and giggled in a way that told me they were so excited to be there! I thought, "These little girls are a lot like my husband's wild life. They know where they will be spiritually fed and are anxious to get there." What happens to that initial excitement within us? Why do we sometimes loose the feeling that bubbles up inside and cries out, "I'm going to God's house! I will be spiritually fed, get to talk about Jesus and His love for me, meet with the other members of the congregation, and the Holy Spirit will keep that "old cat" away!" Think back to how it was in the beginning. It's like the young couple who began their courtship sitting side by side in a pick-up truck. They marry and the years go by. One day, from the passenger's seat, she says to her husband, "Why don't we sit close to each other anymore?" To which he replies, "Honey, I ain't the one who moved."
Have you moved?
Eva Marie Everson
A Modern Day Psalm
"For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is
recieved with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and
prayer."-1 Timothy 4:4-5
First, I want to write some words that come to mind that have to do with life itself:
Relationships, friendships, exploration, learning, growing, teaching, discipling, fun, memories, romance, giving, living, watching, listening, working, praying, deepening, laughing, sharing, reading, fellowship, coffee & tea, building, fixing, sitting, thinking, resting, dialogue, loving, leading, serving, guiding, games, new things, new places, new people, new ideas, old friends, old memories, relatives.
I love life itself. I think there is so much out there that is good. In fact, nothing in and of itself is evil. I want to live to learn about God and His Goodness in and through all the things that He has created, and the sciences that govern the things that we humans have created. God created everything for me, the mountains, the stars, wildlife, plants, rivers, rain forests, volcanoes. . . . He gave me books, Fiestaware, good movies, and a beautiful room. He gave me old lamps, and furniture, and a piece of property with a lake on it, and wonderful grandparents, and the perfect wife. . . . He gave me a community of “lovers of God” to help me to “love God.” He gave me bright sunny mornings, and good coffee to help me to wake up to enjoy them. He gave me a mind that wants to learn and be smart and wise. He gave me a body that works and the energy to do the things I love to do. He wants me to enjoy all these things here. He wants me to explore new places, new ideas, new projects, explore my limits, and stretch them out. He wants me to fish. He wants me to look at the birds, because when I see the beauty of the cardinal, or the character of the nuthatch, or the communal living of the waxwing, I see God's beauty and character. I see Him in the silly carp that we love to catch. I see His love in the beautiful bluegill. I hear Him in the call of the owls, and the coyote. He loves me, and I love Him.
But, I have a hard time seeing Him outside these things, so sometimes I forget from where they come. Sometimes I don't want to enjoy these things. I become unthankful, and bored, and stuck in a rut. I begin looking to be entertained, so maybe I turn to more sinful things. But He is always faithful to steer me back. He gave me friends and relationships with people who care enough to tell me the truth. And so, I realize that although these things are for me, they are meant to be shared with others. I can actually see my brothers and sisters around me, and I see God in them, and I want to share all the good things of life with them. So . . .
We go fishing together, we watch football together, we cook dinner together, we work and laugh, and pray together. Together we enjoy the wildlife we see. Together we appreciate the technology that enables us to call home, e-mail, or surf the net. Together we discuss the deeper aspects of the movie. Together we work out problems in our relationships, in our marriages, in our community. Together we build a house, or fix the car. Together we form a band and make music. Together we learn, together we grow. I could go on and on. Because I LOVE LIFE. I love all the things that God has done and made. I always have loved life and nature, but only recently have I learned that TV, movies, books, antiques, computers, music, airplanes, spaceships, guns, football, fishing poles, canoes, cars, get-away weekends, Monopoly, Hearts, coin collections, Franciscanware, shopping at thrift stores, a cold glass of water, emptying the trash, giving a kid some treats, hugging somebody, on and on and on, all these things are from God Himself!! Not just the Bible, not just Nature. And He wants us to share it all together and be excited and thankful.
Personally, I think it is an insult to the Lord when we fail to see Him in everything and everywhere. He gave us these things to give us some sort of idea of His Character and Personality, and so we fail to know Him more when we ignore all the things in front of our face. We can easily become cynical. We can easily become hateful, or antagonistic, or unthankful for the "small things". But it is even easier once we get moving in the right direction to start to love everything. We only have to open our eyes.
Thank You Lord, for everything! Open our eyes more and more to see Your glory in the world around us, and to thank You for all the small ways You bless us each and every day!
—Eric Clayton
Abundant, Living
Creatures
(Part I)
Today’s Reading
(Genesis 1, verses 20-23)
And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures
and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky." So
God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves,
of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every
kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them saying,
"Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds
multiply on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning,
the fifth day.
Prayer
(From the Wisdom of Solomon 11:24-12:1)
Dear God,
"you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that
you have made,
for you would not have made anything if you had hated it.
How would anything have endured if you had not willed it?
Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved?
You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the
living.
For your immortal spirit is in all things." Amen.
Meditation Options
(1) Activity and reading for children to adults.
(Please bring paper and crayons or any other creative medium with which
you may feel creative. In your gathering place – after reading the
Genesis reading and the prayer – please read the following:)
From Psalm 104: 24-26
"O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable
are there,
living things both small and great.
There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in
it."
Throughout the centuries, people have often wondered what a “Leviathan”
might be. Some think that it’s a huge sea monster, others think that
it’s maybe a whale or a hippopotamus. The Genesis reading for today
tells how God created this Leviathan as well as all the other living creatures
in the sea and in the air. The reading from Psalms tells us that
God made these creatures, big and small, “to sport” in their environments
(the water and the sky). What does “to sport” sound like to you?
(Please take a minute to think/talk about this question.) To me it
sounds like God wants these creatures to just have as much fun as they
possibly can. This makes sense to me because if God loves all of
creation, I would think that God would want all of creation to have a great
time living in relationship, like friends and brothers and sisters, with
other creatures who were having a great time.
Please take some time to draw a picture of what you think a “Leviathan”
might look like if she or he were playing in the water. Please also
draw other creature friends who live in relationship with your Leviathan.
When you’re done, please show your creation to others in your family.
(2) Reading for older children to adults.
(From Fyodor Mikhail Dostoevsky, in The Brothers Karamazov,
David Magarshack, tr., vol. i, Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1969;
reprinted in Andrew Linzey and Tom Regan, eds., Love the Animals: Meditations
and Prayers, New York: Crossroad, 1988, p.12)
“Love all of God’s creation, the whole of it and every grain of sand.
Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light! Love the animals, love
the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive
the divine mystery in things. And once you have perceived it, you
will begin to comprehend it ceaselessly, more and more every day.
And you will at last come to love the whole world with an abiding, universal
love. Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought
and untroubled joy. Do not, therefore, trouble them, do not torture
them, do not deprive them of their joy, do not go against God’s intent.”
Growing Prayer
(One person:) Dear God,
As the winds continue to caress the waters of creation,
As the waves of the sea crash loudly,
As the hills and trees stand strong together,
As the sun, moon, and stars shine brightly,
And fish and birds play in the water and the air,
All expressing thanks to You,
So we thank You for Your continued presence throughout the entire family
of creation.
(Everyone:) And God saw that creation was good! Amen.
