Dear Friends of Picton and South Bay United Churches;
Greetings on another lovely summer morning! Looks like we may get some needed rain this afternoon. (This morning would be a good time for beach or gardening or birding!) Each of these activities is marked by beauty. I segue to my ‘Reflection’ this morning – “Today’s Post” focus is on that topic.
May these words and the thoughts that they engender be for you a blessing and encouragement as you make your way through this pilgrimage of faith – in trying times.
Grace and peace with pastoral love and concern,
Rev. Phil
“All beautiful the march of days, as seasons come and go; the hand that shaped the rose has wrought the crystal of the snow. . .”
(Frances Whitmarsh Wile 1911, alt)
These words written in the year of my Mother’s birth came to my mind this morning in reflecting on the beauty of the world around us. (Perhaps you think it strange to mention snow when it is +30 with humidex? But I find it easier to be appreciative of ‘the crystal of the snow’ from here than from the vantage point of the shovel in my hands at the end of my driveway in February – as the plow drives past! 😉 )
“The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of God’s hands.”
(Psalm 19.1)
“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.”
(I Corinthians 15.41)
For us “townies” it is worth a drive out into the country on a clear night – when the moon is only beginning its cycle. We can’t really grasp or fully appreciate the awesome beauty of the night sky unless we are in a place with little ambient light. It truly is breath-taking. (You who abide in the country definitely have an advantage in being able to simply step outside your door to behold “the glory”.)
In this time when we are, metaphorically, experiencing a lack of light – we need so much to hold on to the beauty all around us. The night sky in summer can help us to do just that. It can be, it is, salve to sooth our troubled souls.
The glory of the universe spread before us is also reflected in microcosm in fireflies winking in the dusk – and in Evening Primrose blooming.
And even when the sky is overcast, or the rain pouring or storm raging, we have the great gift of memory that links us with the pictures in our mind’s eye of starlight.
