Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Romans 1;16-25; Psalm 19; Luke 11:37-41
This morning when I let out my dog the moon was shining down and the stars were shining down and I thought of what Paul says today in Romans: “ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.” In this vastness, this beauty.
“The heavens declare the glory of God,” the psalmist says today. The moon declares and the stars declare. Even my new puppy declares, sniffing around in the bushes.
Then the day goes on and we go to work and we get caught up in the things we get caught up in. We start worrying about little things: what people are wearing, how they talk, whether they wash their hands before meals in the prescribed way, as the Pharisees do in today’s gospel. In the morning we are awed. In the afternoon we are Pharisees, too. The stars are always shining down, even during the day. We just can’t see them.
There’s a beautiful Jewish prayer I came across the other day: “O Lord, I am grateful before you.” This is the attitude we are called to. This is the prayer we should pray.
When I walk out beneath the morning stars and feel my own smallness. When I go back inside and see my wife’s face. When I get down on the floor and play with my new puppy.
“O Lord, I am grateful before you.”