Daily Devotion 21 September 2020

Create a peaceful space to pause, and allow yourself to feel God’s presence alongside you, as near to you as your own breath. In following the reflection below, as a church we will draw closer to God and to one another as we grow in faith and deepen our sense of belonging to God.

Isaiah 40:25-31 ‘Thanksgiving for All Creation’

25 To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God’? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. 30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; 31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Watching Wonders of the Universe on TV presented by Brian Cox I find myself totally overwhelmed by the immensity of God’s creation and those ‘boundless curves of space’. Pictures of millions of stars, planets and information  about black holes in an ever-expanding universe leave me utterly speechless. The thought that Creation is not a one-off but an ongoing work by the great Architect of beauty beyond our comprehension. (If we are honest, I suspect most of us do not understand half of what Brian Cox says, and are simply overawed as he speaks of exploding stars, and tells us that, indeed, we are all made of stardust!) How can we comprehend light travelling at tremendous speeds, yet taking many, many years of journeying before we on earth see it? We can only gaze in wonder as we witness the immensity and power of creation. The sheer numbers of galaxies and stars are mind-boggling, with yet more to be discovered as ever more powerful telescopes reveal an ever-expanding magnificence – it’s nearly incomprehensible to our finite minds to grasp that our solar system is but one of many.

Even more incomprehensible is the knowledge given us by Jesus, God’s ultimate Authority, that we are important to the immortal, invisible Creator God who is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. The same one who counts those myriad stars sees and knows each one of us and all are precious to him. Over and over again, as each new day dawns, we are reminded of the unceasing miracle of creation, and are silent before such beauties as sunrise and sunset, and the glories of the night sky? We can only worship, giving praise and thanks to such an abundant Giver!

Prayer:

Stupendous, almighty God, we find no words to fully express our thoughts as we glimpse the wonders of your creation, but we praise you for all that brings us delight. We worship you in awe, holy God, and thank you for all that stirs us to turn to you in gratitude. Thank you most of all for Jesus with his assurance that, in all this vast splendour, you are never far away away from us. Thank you that we may know you and keep us ever aware of your all surrounding presence. Bring us at last to understand those things beyond our earthly comprehension, ‘where no clouds your glory hide’. To you be the power and the glory now and always. Amen.

Reflection & Prayer © 2020 Hazel Blake.
Image freely available online.

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