Wanderings for June 14, 2009

Good Friday everyone: it's a beautiful day. The Gladys and John Kapenga Community Peace Garden is looking great. The flowers have been watered and are thriving, the birds and squirrels have been feasting upon the seeds and the fence David created is just the perfect touch to welcome folk and (in the fall) to remind them that we were here. With my office windows open I can hear kids playing and a neighbor fixing his car/revving the engine.

Life, for this moment, is good. And let us not forget that little Kayla is having her feeding tub taken out today, which is certainly good news for her and her family.

This Sunday we are journeying back into the Old Testament. 1 Samuel 16:1-13 introduces us to a young person named David. He is the youngest and most seemingly inconsequential of an inconsequential family in a tiny, teeny town. As the author of "The Message" describes David, he's a "runt."

Yet this runt of a son/brother is the one God chooses to become the next King of God's people, and this runt from a nobody family will also become the greatest king Israel ever knew, and the king that all others will be compared to.

Yet again, it's a story of how God surprises us, and how God sees not with human eyes, but with God's eyes: eyes that see not just the physical, but the emotional, the spiritual, the gifts, the strengths, the flaws and the works in progress.

I had a friend who use to pray "God, teach me how to love myself the way you love me." I think you could also change that to "God, help me to see myself the way you see me."

How do you believe God is seeing you, and how can you allow that to shape and inform how you see yourself, as well as those around you?

Have a blessed day, and let us also keep in our prayers those who have not been feeling so well lately: Gladys Kapenga, Mary Louise Johnson, Marv Timmerman and Mary Jane Everett.

Peace and joy,

Rev. George Miller