Reflections by the Pond
June 11, 2003

God is Here

May my prayer be counted as incense before You;
The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.
Psalm 141:2 nasbu

There is a delicate moment, in the late spring of the year, which God inhabits most intimately.

The sun is low, nearing the end of its day, but it still dapples the west-facing trees with white light just beginning its fade to the yellows and oranges of sunset. Its rays still warm the air, but the beginnings of evening are felt in the breeze, and in the damp chill resting in the pockets of deeper shade.

Rabbits browse the lawn, scampering and teasing each other, hopping this way and that as they do--the year-round preliminaries to making more bunnies. And from the edge of the woods step a doe and her new fawn, the young mother more cautious than usual, protective of her little one. Mom introduces the fawn to the salt lick, and the tasty new growth on the fruit trees. The birds are still awake, gathering last-minute snacks before turning in for the night, their songs jumble together, becoming a prelude to evening vespers.

The air is fresh and dry--the summer humidity has not yet set in--and the sweet scent of the flowering Russian olive trees passes on the gentle breeze. Spring rains have left the colors of the trees, the luxuriant grass, the bushes vibrant and sharp. Everything is, if just for the moment, perfect. Serene.

Holy.

For God is here. In the delicate serenity of the moment, God is here. He is also here, of course, even in the dry months, and the times of the year that are bound up in ice and snow. But in this exquisite moment lie all the right elements for our God-receptors to sense Him--and to embrace His goodness and creative will.

Let no one rock gently on a west-facing porch--watching the spring sun ease gracefully into the distant rolling hills, listening to the vespers serenade of the winged, watching the little fawn awkwardly investigate his new world--let no one in this fresh sylvan moment doubt that there is a God.

And that He delights in those who call upon His name.

Let my meditation be pleasing to Him;
As for me, I shall be glad in the Lord.
Psalm 104:34 nasbu

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Reflections file: pond0375.txt