LENTEN DEVOTION FOR SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9

Now I am revealing new things to you, things hidden and unknown to you, created just now. (Isaiah 48:6)

Written in a recent FPC weekly update was a reference to Henri Nouwen's words, "I have lost the eyes to see the joy and the ears to hear the gladness that belongs to God...found in the hidden corners of the world." It was suggested that if one is to attend to God's gladness, we must look, search, notice, celebrate it.

In her book Simple Abundance, Sarah Band Breatchnatch leads her readers to recognize, appreciate, even celebrate the simple ordinary things, sights, sounds, happenings in our daily lives. God's natural creation has offered me so many simple abundant joys: observing a cardinal feeding on berries in a backyard hawthorn tree, listening to its melodious song, seeing finches bob to and fro as they feast on seeds of spent coneflower blooms, soaking up the beauty of an arching rainbow during a summer rain, viewing a brilliant, fast-fading Lake Michigan sunset, chuckling over the rapid chasing of two squirrels.

How warmly touched I was with a phone call from a friend of years gone by, and feeling blessed after a long-distance conversation with a now 90 year old whose friendship goes back more than 30 years.

Sharing meals with family on ordinary days or on holidays, having the opportunity to provide a meal for a couple recovering from surgery, all examples of God's simple abundance, available to us to recognize and joyfully celebrate God's gladness in His creation.

Gracious, loving God, open my eyes, open my ears to your simple abundant gifts that I may joyfully celebrate Your gladness in Your creation. Amen.

Patricia Lindroth

Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31)

A Bird's Eye View As you have seen, photos of the earth taken from the space shuttle and the International Space Station are incredible. We were fortunate enough to see these vehicles in the night sky this past summer. These photo images taken from hundreds of miles away are so magnified and yet are so clear. From such a high altitude with this high-technology imaging, urban city streets, commercial building rooftops, and even sidewalks are visible. Zooming in much closer to a much smaller distance and minute scope, a different technological adaptation of photo imaging can also be amazing! If these things are all possible, surely God, the Creator of the universe, can focus on the most minute details of his creation. Nothing escapes his glance. As Ethel Waters sang in "Showboat," "Why should I be discouraged? His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me." So in the midst of our struggles, hardships, and challenges, we find that we are never fully out of view. That knowledge helps us to praise God no matter where we are. God sees all and knows all.

Gracious God, help us to be encouraged and strengthened by the assurance that we are never off your screen. During this winter we noticed birds in trees or on the telephone wires that are under your watchful care. We praise you and are grateful to you for keeping an eye on us. Amen.

Carol Morrill

Reference: The Book of Matthew in the "I Worship", Daily Devotional Bible

I knew that you are a loving and merciful God, always patient, always, kind, and always ready to change your mind and not punish. (Jonah 4:2)

The Book of Jonah is one focus of this year's Presbyterian Women's Bible study. The story is so familiar and so fantastical! I thought I knew it well Jonah running from God, three days in the belly of the whale, warning the Ninevites, angry at God -- but I had missed one important detail -- why was Jonah so determined not to do what God commanded?

It turns out Jonah, like his fellow Jews, absolutely hated the Ninevites. They were pagans, after all, not part of the Chosen People. Why should Jonah deliver God's message of warning? Why should God care about them? As pastor and author Anne Robertson writes, Jonah feels God should have higher standards.

Maybe the lesson of Jonah's story is that God decides who He cares about and who He will save -- not Jonah, not man, not us. Pastor Robertson asks, "What would it be like if we showed an ounce of compassion rather than a ton of judgment? What would it be like if we forgave as we have been forgiven?"*

Our job is to do God's work wherever, whenever, and for and with whomever He decides. Jewish tradition says that, at the end of the story, Jonah fell on his face and said, "Govern your world according to the measure of mercy, as it is said, `To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness.'" (Daniel 9:9)

God, help us to show mercy and forgiveness and love to all your children, not just the ones we think deserve it! Amen.

Diane Falconer

*Robertson, Anne. Blowing the Lid off the God-Box: Opening Up to a Limitless Faith. Morehouse, 2005. p. 43.

LENTEN DEVOTION FOR WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Luke 12:34)

Jesus - Priceless Treasure!

The Lenten season is upon us, reminding us to take this special time to reflect upon the life, the ministry, and the presence of Christ in our lives. Just as Advent asks us to prepare for and anticipate the coming of Christ, the child, into our world, so Lent now offers us the particular opportunity to focus our thoughts upon the man - the Son of God and one with the Creator. We take this time to consider the life of Jesus in His teachings, the challenges and struggles He faced, His courageous witness to injustice, the outreach He made to the unloved, and most of all - the love from God that Jesus bestowed on all humankind.

During these weeks of Lent, we journey with Christ in His ministry. We walk with Him and His disciples as they gather in village and town; we listen to His teaching and the lessons of His parables; we follow behind Him with palms as people celebrate His coming; we hear His words of comfort at the table; we wait and sorrow with Him at Gethsemane; and we stumble the streets of Jerusalem with Him as He goes to the cross. There we are overwhelmed by His sacrifice and loving grace in the face of unbearable agony. We witness His surrender, and our hearts are broken.

Yet, come the morning light and miraculously with joy, the sorrow of that previous day and the emptiness of the tomb disappear, and each one of us, the world, and humankind is forever and eternally changed. Thanks be to God for this gift, this priceless treasure.

O Lord, not only are we offered eternity in your presence, but we are incredibly blessed by Your presence as You journey beside us. How grateful we are that, in spite of our neglect, you are always lovingly there. Amen.

Swid Kirchhofer