Daily Devotion for Lent 2018 - Day 1, Ash Wednesday

Scripture Reading: Genesis 1 (NRSV)

There is a beauty to this chapter that grants knowledge beyond what one can ordinarily "know" or prove.  As we see the creation unfold, I am struck by God's insistence that it is good.  Too often, we see the bad in the world.  Worse yet, sometimes we even look for it.

There have been times in my life when I wonder if I am unsatisfied with success or goodness.  Why would I invite chaos into my life during these times?  And yet, I must confess that sometimes this is surely the case.  It may be that we don't believe that we deserve goodness.

But as William Munny says in Unforgiven, "Deserves got nothin' to do with it."

Christians see creation through the lens of Christ.  But Jesus

may just remind us what we learned in the beginning.

The grace reflected in creation in this chapter is a message from the very beginning of scripture.  We are created "good"!  In case we forget this, the psalmist later reminds us that we were placed just a little lower than God.

As Jesus was driven into the desert following his baptism, he fasted and surely contemplated the creation story.  He later reflects as much in the Sermon on the Mount when he tells us to consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.  His point is to give us peace of mind in order to contradict the anxiety that was present in his day.

Fortunately, we don't have a lot of stress or anxiety today, do we?

When we are at our best, we may remember that God is our creator.

When we are at our best, we may remember that we are created good.

When we are at our best, we may remember that everything else is too.



Our God, God of all people,
God of heaven and earth, seas and rivers,
God of sun and moon, of all the stars,
God of high mountain and lowly valleys,
God over heaven, and in heaven, and under heaven.
God has a dwelling in heaven and earth and sea
   and in all things that are in them.
God inspires all things, God quickens all things.
God is over all things, God supports all things.

God makes the light of the sun to shine,
God surrounds the moon and the stars,
God has made wells in the arid earth,
Placed dry islands in the sea.
God has a Son who is co-eternal
And the Holy Spirit breathes in them;
Not separate are the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.


Prayer by St. Patrick, Ireland, 5th Century

Photo taken by the author at a sunrise hike at Camp Egan, July 6, 2017