Monthly Archives: December 2025

Only Wondrous Things

1 Reply

Daily Readings: Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Isaiah 30:19-26; Acts 13:16-25

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth, Amen and Amen. Psalm 72:18-19, NRSV

Blessed God, Israel’s God, the one and only wonder-working God! Blessed always his blazing glory! All earth brims with his glory. Yes and Yes and Yes. Psalm 72:18-19, The Message

The three most difficult things to say are:

1)I was wrong

2)I need help

3)—wait—wait—Worcestershire sauce

The I need help one is for real for me. I was brought up with a strict Protestant ethic where asking for help was a sign of weakness – who hasn’t been told If you want a job done right, do it yourself? Some of this, I think, is also a male thing. I’m supposed to have the answers not the questions. I’m supposed to know what to do and how to do it (though in all fairness, I  know women who are better at this than I am). Sometimes I just need to get out of the way, kneel down and bless God, the Do-er of wondrous things.

It’s amazing what can happen when we give up being Captain of the World. Turning to God to bless God shifts my focus from all I have got to do during this season to what I get to do with God’s help—what a difference. Praying for the whole earth to be filled with God’s glory sets me in a direction that helps that happen. After all, God only does wondrous things.

Offered by Bill Albritton, in whom God delights.

The Luck of the Draw

5 Replies

Daily Readings: Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Isaiah 4:2-6; Acts 1:12-17, 21-26

They nominated two: Joseph Barsabbas, nicknamed Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, “You, O God, know every one of us inside and out. Make plain which of these two men you choose to take the place in this ministry and leadership that Judas threw away in order to go his own way.” They then drew straws. Matthias won and was counted in with the eleven apostles.

Acts 1:23-26, The Message

They got it down to two, then they drew straws to decide who would be the apostle to replace Judas. Shouldn’t there have been another round of interviews, perhaps some quiet time to reflect on this rather important decision? Why leave something so important up to chance?

For many years, I thought it was because they didn’t want to be responsible for making the final decision – better for Justus and Matthias to see it as the luck of the draw rather than a judgement on their abilities and souls.

As I’ve gotten older, I think it might have been something different. Matthias and Justus were both deemed capable and worthy. Had the draw gone to Justus, the path would have been different – not better or worse, just different.

Aren’t there times when we face that same thing – a fork in the road with both directions looking equal in worth? Perhaps, at that point, we should just flip a coin and fully embrace the outcome…and trust that the Spirit will bless the road we take.

Freed

2 Replies

Daily Readings: Psalm 124; Isaiah 54:1-10; Matthew 24:23-35

If God hadn’t been for us – all together, now, Israel, sing out! –

If God hadn’t been for us when everyone else went against us, we would have been swallowed alive by their violent anger, swept away by the flood of rage, drowned in the torrent;

We would have lost our lives in the wild, raging water.

Oh, blessed be God! He didn’t go off and leave us. He didn’t abandon us defenseless, helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs.

We’ve flown free from their fangs, free of their traps, free as a bird. Their grip is broken; we’re free as a bird in flight.

God’s strong name is our help, the same God who made heaven and earth. Psalm 124, The Message

Breaking Free by Riley Anderson

Have you ever felt this: pinned down, unable to move or free yourself? It’s awful to be tangled in a snare, unable to escape into safety.

Have you ever experienced this: someone freeing you so that you can fly again? It’s miraculous when freedom comes instead of pain and death.

Freeing the captives of their snares so that they can take flight. It’s as good an explanation of why God chose to enter human life as any I can think of…

Image by Riley Anderson, in whom God delights (reposted from 2016).

Responsible

Leave a reply

Daily Readings: Psalm 124; Genesis 9:1-17; Hebrews 11:32-40

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Genesis 9:1-2, NRSV

God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Every living creature – birds, animals, fish – will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You’re responsible for them. Genesis 9:1-3a, The Message

The living things we claim also claim us. We are responsible for the animals in our lives. When we bring home that new puppy or kitten, when we buy the tank and the goldfish, we take on the responsibility to feed them, keep them healthy, and offer them our love and attention. Because they depend on us, we must be dependable. It takes time and resources, and a lot of affection, to be responsible.

Franklin

The same holds true for the animals who feed and clothe us. We are responsible for providing them with good lives, with adequate food, shelter, and space to live well before they end up on our tables. This, too, costs – either a price tag at the grocery store or the effort and resources to raise them ourselves.

The animals that nourish us – emotionally or physically – are connected to who we are in a spiritual sense (As are the plants and other humans). We are part of a great, sacred whole. When we act responsibly, we bless creation. When we do not, we harm not only the animals we treat poorly: we harm creation and our own lives. Let’s not do that.

Ebbtide

But God Remembered…

4 Replies

Daily Readings: Psalm 124; Genesis 8:1-19; Romans 6:1-11

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided; the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters gradually receded from the earth.

Genesis 8:1-3a, NRSV

But God Remembered…

That word but confronts all those times we feel forgotten and forsaken, all those times our spirits are low and our hope is all but gone. There are those times in life when it is hard to gather the energy we need to keep on going, all but impossible to endure the tribulations that confront us. It is then that the word but is important. It means despite what we have endured, regardless of how we feel, there is another possibility for us.

But God remembered…

That possibility rests in the remembering of God. God remembers the care with which our world and everything in it—all creation—were formed. God remembers that it was good. And God remembers us. That is good, too. What makes it even better is that God’s remembering isn’t just about the past. It also leads to the future—and a promise. God’s promise was a promise to care. That caring came in a pledge that As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:22).

It may seem strange to begin the season of Advent reflecting on Genesis. But there is a thread that ties the two together, a thread that runs through the entire Bible. Advent is a time for us to remember—to remember that God remembered and still does. God remembered Noah; God remembered people in need of a savior; God remembers us and our need for a savior. Advent is a time for us to remember God’s remembering. It is only when we do so that we can prepare ourselves to fully receive that great gift of Christ.

Remember.

Offered by Jeff Jones, in whom God delights.