“O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.”  Psalm 51:15

“Peter and John said, ‘We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.’”  Acts 4:20

I have many favorite memories of many favorite days – time with family and friends certainly, and time outside with God.  Day hiking – pack a lunch, find a log in the woods, a flat rock by a creek, a mountain summit – God’s restaurant chain.  The cuisine is lean, but the ambience is priceless – a table with a view, and live music – water, wind, birds.  There is glory in my own backyard – the stunning pinks and oranges of the rising and setting sun.

Gazing 360 degrees from a mountaintop, at those tall trees or the night sky, one might rightfully feel small. Yet, God is mindful of us, and the sparrow, and the lilies of the field.  We are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).  I was knit together in my mother’s womb before drawing in my first breath.  I have eyes to see, ears to hear, a nose to smell, a heart to love.  I look in the mirror and see a child of God.  How amazing is that?!  

It doesn’t end there/here.  People in other nations see the same sun, moon and stars.  They look in a mirror and also see a child of God.  And Jesus came to live as one of us, and to teach us how to love one another, as he has loved us.  How praiseworthy is that?!

May we never take for granted your creation all around us.  Move us to take care of and share all that you have given, in our back yards, our communities, our nation, the earth; and to love all humanity as you have loved.  What – whom – you have made is good.  Amen

Verla Olson

Ministries
Teaching Mission Party