SCRIPTURE: Psalm 36:7-8
(TM)
How exquisite your
love, O God! How eager we are to run under your wings, to eat our fill at the
banquet you spread as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water.
STORY:
In a speech made
in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, "We have been the recipients of the
choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace
and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation
has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand,
which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us,
and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these
blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel
the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God
that made us."
OBSERVATION:
Look around. Go ahead take a gander. What is seen? Blessing
upon blessings? Are they not expressions of God’s love? Even when times are
tough the blessings from God keep flowing don’t they?
Too often we narrow our vision to preconceived notions
missing the fullness of God’s banquet of goodness spread before us. How sad! It
really is sad to sit in the Garden and miss the beauty.
We are too busy. Too busy to watch the flight of a butterfly
... too busy to listen for the song of a bird … too busy to watch with
fascination the squirrels hunt for something to eat ... too busy to smell the
sweet fragrance of a rose … too busy to stand in wonder at all God has created
… too busy and full of ourselves to enjoy the noise of children at play. We are
missing so much.
Lent is a time to slow down. It is a time to take the time
for God. To enjoy the experience of living under his wings; to savor the cool
Eden spring water; to embrace the wonder of his creation; to marvel at the full
extent of God’s blessings.
The season of Lent is hurrying to its conclusion and we just
might miss the great climax because we are too busy to slow down and enjoy the
journey.
PRAYER:
Help us to slow down. May the wonder of your blessings take
away our breath. Help us hear the sounds of nature. Help us marvel at the full
extent of your blessings. Stop us in our tracks so that we don’t run past the
great banquet table.
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