Ordinary Time

Pause

Satisfied

Thriving

Filled Full

Abundant

Goodness

Pure Joy

More Than Enough

You Won’t Lack a Thing

These words, pulled from our readings for this week, describe life as God intended. A life overflowing with all the good things God longs to give us.

This week of Thanksgiving, let’s open our eyes to notice what God has given us, open our hands to receive God’s blessing, open our hearts to receive God’s love, and open our arms to share God’s abundance with others.

Listen

In righteousness you answer us, by your awesome deeds, God of our salvation— you, who are the security of all the far edges of the earth, even the distant seas. You establish the mountains by your strength; you are dressed in raw power. You calm the roaring seas; calm the roaring waves, calm the noise of the nations. Those who dwell on the far edges stand in awe of your acts. You make the gateways of morning and evening sing for joy.

Psalm 65:5-8

Think

I don’t know about you, but I never fail to encounter God in nature: sitting on the beach listening to the rhythm of the waves with the sun on my face and my toes in the sand, standing at a scenic overlook and seeing mountains rolling into the horizon, lying on a blanket in the grass and watching meteor showers in the night sky, breathing the scent of the woods on a hike, experiencing the still silence of a fresh snowfall, watching the sun set over the river.

This is part of that abundant life God generously shares with us. In fact, I am firmly convinced that when we encounter God in nature, we are peeking into the windows of heaven, experiencing God’s creative design in ways that we can feel and touch and smell and see. We have the privilege of witnessing God’s active work of creation every day. The gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy, indeed!

Ann Whitfield Carter

Pray

Thank you God for the abundance of your creation. Thank you for giving this world to us to love, to live in, to take care of, and to witness your creation work each and every day. Amen.

Go

Notice all you have been given and thank the Giver.

Notice God at work and thank the Giver.

Notice God beside you and thank the Giver.

Notice God inside you and thank the Giver.

Notice God in others and thank the Giver.

Notice God in nature and thank the Giver.

Notice the need around you, open your arms to share, and thank the Giver.

Notice.

Just look around where you are right now.

And thank the Giver.