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.
John 1: 1-5 ‘Thanksgiving for Life’
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Our God is the Creator God and it was through Jesus, his Son, that he gave life to all created beings – plants, animals, and people. What an imaginative God we have when we consider the variety of life in the sea, on the land and in the air!
But Jesus not only brought life he also brought light, and light – white light – is colourful. If you remember from your school days white light contains the spectrum of colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. So not only do we have this immense variety of life, it is colourful – overwhelmingly colourful at times.
Consider birds, some obvious like kingfishers, some subtle like the starling and that’s just two British birds. What about insects: the bright red of the ladybird, the shimmering wings of dragonflies and as for the peacock butterfly? Gleaming mackerel, the golden hair of a retriever, the bright green of a frog: the list goes on and that’s just the animal kingdom. What about plants, trees, even lichens: all nature surrounds us with colour? During lockdown we have see the trees change from the light fresh greens of spring to the thick dense greens of summer and now the gold and yellow of autumn, whilst garden flowers continue to provide their own colours to reflect the seasons and the roses just keep going.
We live in a colourful world which delights the eye. Our eyes, created by God so that we, unlike some other parts of his creation, can see colour in all its fullness, to appreciate and enjoy. Surely we need to give thanks for this colourful world in which we live, as the classic hymn by Mrs Cecil Frances Alexander goes:
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful,
the Lord God made them all.
He gave us eyes to see them,
and lips that we might tell
how great is God Almighty,
who has made all things well.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, we thank you for the wonderfully varied and colourful world you have made, given to us to enjoy and care for.
Forgive us for not taking seriously our responsibility for your natural world.
Awaken in us a campaigning spirit to do our part in protecting and nurturing our beautiful world. Amen.
Reflection and Prayer © 2020 Gillian Wood.
Images freely available online.
Hymn words out of copyright.
A printable version of this Daily Devotional can be downloaded from here
All material within this order of worship is reproduced by permission under CCL 1226356