Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Lenten Prayer as CtK #beauty #lent2015

Prayer:
Gracious Lord,
You have blessed us with beauty beyond measure. Save us from our deceitful eyes and their ugly visions. Help us to see your beautiful work in all things, and all people, knowing they have been made in your image, and not ours, for you make beautiful things.
Amen

Thought:
To borrow and paraphrase from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Life Together, "God did not make this world as I would have made it. God did not give it to us to do dominate and control, but in order that that I might find above it all the Creator."

This morning, I took this picture. There are certainly a thousand words in it, but a million words could not give justice to the splendor of the many birds singing, the sun shining, and the vision of two ducks in the distance, moving together in partnership. And to think, all of this happening in a place called, "Mudville".

But there are other things this picture leaves out as well. The dirtied snow banks, the trash that the melting snow had uncovered, and the dog poop that was everywhere. Not too mention the little dog ferociously growling and yipping at myself and Raven. This morning was beautiful, but it was also very messy.

Our lives are much like this morning, beautiful, but also messy. If we choose to focus on each other's messiness, if we choose to live there with our words and thoughts, we do great harm to each other and to ourselves. Instead of seeing a person God has made, delights over, and dies for, we see only flaws, not only in others, but in the mirror we hold up to our own lives.

To restate Bonhoeffer, in his words: "God did not make this person as I would have made him. He did not give him to me as a brother for me to dominate and control, but in order that I might find above him the Creator. Now the other person, in the freedom with which he was created, becomes the occasion of joy, whereas before he was only a nuisance and an affliction."

About Lenten Prayer as CtK:
During Lent, I am inviting all of you at Christ the King, and anyone who would be willing to join us, to engage in praying together, seeking to hear God and be guided by Christ's life in our life together. To guide these prayers, I will be posting pictures centered around a word for the day. This comes from the facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/LENTPHOTOADAY. Please feel free to join me in posting pictures and thoughts to your social media accounts or to the comments of this blog.

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