Please prayerfully join me for a moment of lament from Psalm 13, and a prayer for God to guide our path through this wilderness and grant us the courage to take it. (Unintentionally recorded during staff devotions prior to worship May 30, 2020)
“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying.” -- Luke 12:27-29
Consider the Loggerhead
After the rain, I can’t sleep. Something internal presses me from bed, out into the world in the dark, to discover God’s newest creation by wind and water in the night. This morning did not disappoint.
It was a special treat at low tide to plant the first human prints of the morning in wet sand. By the time I reached a long stretch of shore and dune unencumbered by human development, the remnants of yesterday’s storm stamped her foot one last time in a lightning fragment that disappeared into dawn.
Up ahead two wide tracks carved the beach, not so wide as a human vehicle nor as narrow as the print of a wandering pet who escaped the house during the night. What pattern could create such regular troughs leading from tide to dune, and at some later point, returning back out to sea?
Arriving here from another part of God’s creation, I’m so much better equipped to recognize the soft track of Black bear, the chaw mark of moose on spring aspen or the blood curdling howl of coyote after a fresh kill in the night. So it took a minute, squatting there at the base of the rising shore to recognize her from the shadows of her passing. I recognized then what I have never seen: the distinctive labor of loggerhead, making her way towards her nest while the world slept.
“Consider the lilies of the field,” Jesus said. “Do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying”, Jesus encouraged.” Consider the Loggerheads.
Prayer: God, you know what we’re up against today, and what is up against us. You know our needs before we think to pray for them, and prepare a feast for us before we recognize our hunger. Thank you for your constant provision through every season, as we consider your care for us and all creation. Amen
God’s grace, mercy and peace,
Rev. Dr. Anna V. Copeland
Interim Senior Minister
Community Church of Vero Beach
