by Diane Woodrow, originally published on her blog Aspirational Adventures
I walked on the beach this morning, powerful waves pounding the shoreline [this picture does not do that sound justice at all], strong wind whipping my hair, images from the James Webb telescope in my brain, pondering the wild hospitality of God, because that is the latest topic on Godspace and I’ve been trying to write a post for it.
It amazes me that God gave us this earth to do with it as we wish, and it often looks like we have just trashed it, tamed it, worked it how we want, abused it. How often have we been disappointed when we have given someone, be that family member or friend, something special of ours and they’re not down with it as we would have hoped? Don’t know about you but it makes me reluctant to give again. Yet God knows the beginning from the end because they are outside of time and place and yet still gave us this amazing earth. Now that is wild hospitality. But God also gave us the whole universe; too far away for us to trash, change or abuse yet there for us to marvel at and enjoy.
HOSPITALITY – the act of being friendly and welcoming
Letting us, even once we have abused the gift we were given, be able to hopefully restore it, but also to be able to marvel at those awesome pictures from the James Webb telescope, sunsets and sunrises, a new born – whether human or animal, trees growing and changing, insects, I could go on and on. So much to wonder at, so much to explore. So much to show how friendly and welcoming God is.
I know if I was God I would stop giving good gifts because of the way my gifts had been mistreated, but God just keeps on giving. And for that I am going to marvel at the wild hospitality of God, the awesomeness of God and the forgiveness of God.
And as Jesus finished talking to the man who asked who his neighbour was I will try and go and “do likewise”
Editor’s Note: You can see all the James Webb photos Diane included in her original post; you can also view them here.
No matter the time of year, it’s important to pause and take time to reset and restore. An excellent way to do that? Take a personal retreat. Building a retreat into the rhythm of your life is a spiritual practice often lost in our helter-skelter, busyness-is-next-to-godliness world. This booklet is based on the most popular posts about spiritual retreats published on Godspacelight.com over the last few years and provides resources for taking a spiritual retreat either on your own or with a friend or spouse. Check it out in our shop!
All photos and writing by June Friesen. Scripture is from the Message Translation.
As I have pondered the current theme of art and how it is a part of our lives I did not think of myself as an artist and wondered what I could do that was artistic. Then it was brought to my attention that often my photos held artistic design. Something I recently learned in google photos is that one can put a word in your search engine and it will bring up any of your photos that it thinks fit the definition.
I love God’s nature and in the past two years with Covid my husband and I have usually spent one day a week out in nature. We are blessed to have many opportunities for this readily available in gardens, lakes, and also zoos.
11-13 God spoke: “Earth, green up! Grow all varieties
of seed-bearing plants,
Every sort of fruit-bearing tree.”
And there it was.
Earth produced green seed-bearing plants,
all varieties,
And fruit-bearing trees of all sorts.
God saw that it was good.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Three.
The Wonder of a Tree
Trees hold so much creativity,
They hold thousands of leaves,
Every tree a different leaf,
At times even different shades of color,
As well the bark may be smooth or rough, brown, black or white,
Branches may reach upwards to their Creator in praise,
Others bow downward as if in homage and prayer,
Some graciously sprout more trees readily,
While others drop acorns, pinecones, and various other seed pods.
Flowers He created in abundance,
The brilliance of color in some is a delight to the eyes,
It brings a gift of beauty to the gardens and forest floors
That causes one’s spirit to lift praise to His Name.
Then there is the gardening factor of creativity God has gifted to many,
As they study the varieties, the colors, the textures,
The need for shade, the need for sun, the need for certain temperatures and moisture,
And as they gently place the seeds and sprouts await with baited breath,
For God to give life and beauty to what is buried beneath the soil.
Some sprout quickly and others take their time,
And they wonder, and they ponder,
Will the seeds awaken, ever?
And then one day to their delight the last little sprouts awaken as well,
And oh so much care is then given,
To help them reach their full potential
And color their space with fullness and beauty –
Oh what joy,
And we also respond as God did so long ago,
It is good.
THE ROSE
The rose is a special flower and is considered by many to be the flower that symbolizes love. When romance is in the air for a couple, often red roses are a gift that is given to the young woman. Roses are also a flower that one sees used for remembering someone special as well. A woman often also thinks of loyalty when she is gifted with roses from her spouse or someone special. As I consider the rose I am reminded that even in their glory and beauty there can be a bit of pain. And in my observations and also study it seems as if the more beautiful the rose the more prickery the thorns. I like to think of a rosebud unfurling as a gift from God.
THE BLOOMING OF A ROSE
I wait patiently as my rose plant awakens to the touch of springtime,
The twigs seem to somehow be coming to life –
And then one day I see,
Oh yes, there are leaf buds – and I sure hope they hurry
As I can hardly wait for God’s beautiful colors to be before my eyes.
Oh yes and then surely there will be
A tantalizing scent to bless my body through and through.
And within days the little twigs begin to come alive with so much green,
And then, one morning much to my delight,
I see a little bud beginning to form –
Oh and now I pray,
‘God, please keep the aphids away.’
Yes, as it is in our lives with sin
That comes to try and mar the beauty of God’s work in our lives,
These little bugs can become a menace to the roses if they find their way to them.
And then the day finally arrives when I can see the colored petals
Folded tightly within the green holder,
Ready to burst forth with color –
And I wonder,
“Can I help it begin to bloom faster?
What if I remove the tightness of the green holder?
And then I remember that God has a patient way of doing things,
And in His time He will open the bud in fullness.
And then I am reminded that in His Scriptures He has reminded us,
That He will do all things the right way in His time,
But oh I wish He would hurry sometimes –
Really God, do I have to wait, so long……?
Yes, there is a lesson in the blossom of the rose,
There is a lesson in the growing process of all things,
You and I included,
The challenge for us is to ‘wait’ –
For the fullness of God’s time.
The cactus is an interesting plant as well
And hold wonder and beauty of their own,
They command a respect in the midst of their beauty,
And often one wonders, why they have to seem so unfriendly?
As I have lived in the desert for many years
I have grown to appreciate the many cactus,
Some grow anywhere and everywhere
While others thrive best in gardens designed and cared for by caretakers.
When I am out and about some of the things I have discovered are:
The cactus are wonderful protection places for birds who are nesting,
For some they just build their nests between the branches,
Others find little holes that have been created someway,
And hide away with their little ones in there.
The cactus provide a place for the bees to frolic and gather pollen,
I have observed them as they roll and roll around deep within the flower,
Then stop and do whatever it is they are created to do
To get all of that pollen from their body
Into those little sacks on their legs and soon their legs are so heavy
They can barely lift themselves into flight to hurry home with their treasure.
The cactus blooms turn into fruit
Which is used for many things,
Some make wonderful jams and jellies,
Of course it has to be carefully picked and prepared
Lest you encounter those protective stickers in the process.
There is also cactus candy and also the paddles of some cactus
Are used for great stews and soups by many people groups.
Yes, these plants are such a delight even though they command our respect.
So as I have shared with you some of the photos of the area where I live I trust that you can see the great artistic hand of God in creation, particularly in the desert regions of the world. I pray that we will learn to embrace how artistic God was in creating beauty around us and well as within us. And my challenge is for each one of us, myself included:
“Let’s embrace the wonder of ‘all’ of God’s creation even though sometimes we may wonder to ourselves: “I wonder why God created this?”
Enjoy a variety of resources in a convenient free download. Let Christine Sine guide you in creating a faith-based community garden! More details here.
Last week Tom and I held a fun Facebook live discussion on hospitality. It stirred a lot of interest and the sharing of wonderful stories about the ways that God blesses all of us through the sharing of hospitality. One such story was shared by my friend Anika Magwood-Van Branteghem. Anika is Flemish originally from Belgium, but I met her as a nurse on the Mercy Ship M/V Anastasis and have thoroughly enjoyed keeping in touch over the years. She loved the discussion on hospitality as a doorway to the kingdom and commented that generosity goes hand in hand with that. She then shared the following beautiful story.
Many decades ago I was starting dinner preps and with 5 children, I usually would bake 7 large potatoes and 7 pieces of fish or meat. I was a very busy mom with 5 children and involved in their schools and church often. Our finances were meager so food was often prayed-in, but generosity is something the Lord emphasized in me and He had me obey through hospitality often.
This one day as I prepared dinner, I kept adding food to my usual portions without thinking about it. Near dinner time my husband, John, returned from cutting wood in the forest with a young couple we did not know. He had found them alone sitting by their broken car on a rural road. This was before cellphones etc. He invited them to come to our house and have dinner while trying out to get help for the car.
So here we had unexpected company, but the Lord had guided my hands to prepare extra potatoes, meat and veggies….just enough for 2 more people. After dinner friends went and helped with the car and we never saw them again! We have often wondered if they were angels? But for sure we were able to share the love of Jesus with them. We always read scripture after dinner, so they heard the Word of God as well. If they were not angels, the Lord certainly sent them to our home as a door to the Kingdom.
Another reader, David del Valle, commented:
We were privileged to have grown up in a home where hospitality was a core value. We were poor, but there was also room at the table for friends and family. It was quite typical for Puerto Ricans of low means. Low on the economic scale but high in hospitality. Fond memories of those moments.
Both these stories highlight something I frequently observe. We don’t have to be rich to be hospitable. In fact it is often those who are low on the economic scale who are high in hospitality. I have been blessed with incredible hospitality in Haiti and Ghana and Mexico by people who were poor economically but rich in relationships. In fact studies show that as people move up the economic ladder they often give up relationships for productivity. For many of us, radical hospitality, as portrayed in the Bible, where we reach beyond our families and close community to entertain strangers, is hard. Busyness and prestige often make us feel there is no time to be hospitable or that our homes don’t look good enough to invite others into. Or we are afraid strangers will steal our possessions. Or we think we need to prepare special food or stretch our budget to create some exotic meal.
Radical hospitality is not like that. Radical hospitality is about sharing the little we have, humble as it may be, with whoever comes to our door and allowing God to both expand it and make it special. I am sure that the couple who shared potatoes and vegetables with Anika and her family, felt they had been blessed with a very special meal. They probably thought that Anika and John were angels too.
Hospitality is about sharing our lives not just our food, with others too. That’s part of the reason for the cookbook we are compiling as part of our emphasis on Embracing the Wild Hospitality of God. Please consider contributing recipes and stories of how God generously provided for you and for others through you.
Please take the time to watch the video on how hospitality has been a part of Tom and I’s lives and marriage. I hope it inspires you to reach out and embrace the God of radical hospitality and find a doorway into the kingdom as a result for you too.
Do you enjoy providing hospitality? Do you have a go-to recipe you turn to time and again? We would love to hear about it! We are collecting recipes across our Godspace community for our first-ever cookbook. Send your recipe written in your own words, where it came from, and why it’s special to you to godspacelight@gmail.com – if you send 3 or more recipes in, you will receive a FREE digital copy of the finished cookbook! For more information check out this post: https://tinyurl.com/GodspaceCommunityCookbook
A contemplative service with music in the spirit of Taize. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756.
“Bring Your Peace”
Words and music by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
“Bless the Lord”
Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé
“Seek Ye First”
By Karen Lafferty Copyright 1972 Maranatha! Music
“Litany of the Beatitudes”
Text and music by Kester Limner, 2022, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
“When He Cometh (Jewels)”
Thank you for praying with us! www.saintandrewsseattle.org
Ok so I’d never heard of Farmworker Appreciation Day before it appeared on the Godspace email, but it has really made me think. In fact the National Farmworkers Ministry has a whole week in March where is brings about awareness of farmworkers. Check out this site – https://nfwm.org/news/nfaw-2022/. This site tells you a bit about its history – https://nationaltoday.com/farmworker-appreciation-day/ But really all these “national days” should be a kickstarter to get us thinking not just a “do today and then forget about it/them”
My friend, Eric, is a cowman. He’s been a cowman most of his life. He turned 60 this year. He works long very physical hours and only gets every other weekend off. His pay is not great and he cannot retire until he reaches the statutory retirement age.
But for Eric, at least he lives in the UK. For those bringing our food from elsewhere or who have been trafficked to work over here, their conditions can be terrible. But we expect our shops and supermarkets and doorstep deliveries to have a large variety of food at a price we can afford. But how often do we think how it got to us? We cannot appreciate something if we don’t even think about how it got to us.
No one stood on their doorsteps to clap the farmworkers here in the UK. It was good to clap the NHS workers because covid hit them hard. But for the farmworkers, they had to keep going too. For those who supplied the hospitality industry, many lost their jobs. Now people moan that no one wants to pick the fruit and veg that itinerant workers used to do; many of whom have stopped their travelings for a while because of various issues that are too much to go into in this post and would detract from what today is all about.
But actually as Joni Mitchel sang once “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” [Big Yellow Taxi – 1970] this is what happened with the farmworkers. No one realised what they did or how hard they worked, and often would moan about the “influx of foreigners.” But those foreigners picked our fruit and veg. Now we are noticing with the war between Russia and Ukraine that much of Europe’s grain comes from Ukraine. Firstly did we really know that? How often do we take the time to work out where our food does come from? And second did we ever really appreciate those workers?
As with my friend, Eric, who works 48 weeks of the year, 6 days a week, we don’t give him or others like him a thought. We just expect milk to make it to our supermarkets/doorstep. And often in our way of not really knowing the hows and whys of things we can be critical of how farming is done, bemoan methods we know very little about.
Yes it would be great if all the milk cows could live in fields and all the food we need be grown without pesticides, but are we willing to pay those extra costs? Pay for the extra hours it takes to bring cows back and forth from fields? Support farmers and farmworkers if they made less on their crops?
I do go to the local farm shop, get my veg from Oddbox which takes the fruit and veg the supermarkets reject, have a milkman who delivers in glass bottles. But I also have a husband who earns a decent wage so we can afford all this.
But whether we buy from a cheap supermarket or an expensive farm shop how often do we think to appreciate all the work that has gone into growing our food? When we say “grace” do we think to not just thank God for our food but thank the people who worked hard to produce our food; who worked the land, dealt with weeds and pesticides, had aching muscles due to the physical side of their work, and all those other things that go on to produce our “daily bread.”
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Enjoy this FREE download – a compilation of all the beautiful art, poetry, stories and more that made up our Artful Julybilee. Explore what it means to live as Christ lived through the lens of art – with contributions by many of our authors. All in one beautiful booklet – visit our shop for more info!
It’s a brand new month! New beginnings!
I love them!
This month, BE KIND TO YOURSELF!
Take time to practice that!
Notice when you aren’t being kind to yourself!
When you are pushing too hard!
When you aren’t saying kind things to yourself
Or about yourself!
Our inner dialogue matters!
BE KIND TO YOURSELF THIS MONTH!
Make it a practice!
I know some people are starting their holidays while others are busy getting folks back to school.
But take time to NOTICE where you really are!
BE KIND to yourself!
BE COMPASSIONATE NOT JUDGMENTAL ( as my therapist likes to remind me)
Notice your life
Notice your emotions, your feelings, your needs.
Breathe
Stop
Notice
Ask for help
Tell the truth
What do you need this month so you can be kind to yourself?
PRACTICE:
Why not write down 3 things you can do to be kind to yourself in August.
I’ll start: Go to bed on time. Take time to create. More time with friends.
And write down 3 things you need to STOP doing in order to BE KIND to yourself this month!
Ok..that’s harder! stop checking my phone first thing in the morning. stop with the critical self talk, stop freaking out over things out of my control.
What could life look like and feel like if we were were KIND to ourselves as a spiritual practice this month?
What if we gave ourselves hospitality so that we can give others hospitality? What does a personal hospitality practice look like?
What does giving yourself hospitality look like? A picnic, A bubble bath, a long walk, a date to a bookstore, some fresh flowers? That’s a great thing to journal about this weekend.
In order to truly experience hospitality for ourselves we need to remember how loved we are! The Creator of the entire universe LOVES YOU AND ME!
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” JESUS John 15:9
Take time to check out other verses about God’s love for you.
And remember that taking care of yourself & being kind to yourself IS NOT BEING SELFISH! It is honoring the beautiful creation of God!
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. PSALM 19:14
thanks for the inspiration toimarie!
toimarie.com
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
Did you know? If you visit our Seasons and Blessings Resource Page, there is a whole section on Back-to-School resources listed under the Autumn column! We have gathered prayers and practical resources to help you mentally and spiritually prepare yourself and your kids for the school year ahead. You might also enjoy checking out this free downloadable book of prayers for children, found in our shop.
by Carol Dixon
‘Then God looked at everything he had made.
It was very beautiful, so very good!’ [Book of Books by Trevor Dennis]
The other day I posted one of David Adam’s beautiful prayers about caring for God’s world on Godspacelight in response to Louise Connor’s reflection “Back” and its Stories and I thought it would be good to tell a bit of the story behind David’s lovely prayer.
Recently my daily devotions have been taken from some of the Celtic writers and their care for the world we live in. I was blest to meet Canon David Adam, a prolific writer on Celtic spirituality, when he was the vicar of Lindisfarne and to see his living spirituality in action firsthand as he prayed and taught in the church there. Afterward we shared some memories of growing up in Northumberland – we were both from the town of Alnwick. Although David was 10 years older than me, many of our memories of our hometown and the countryside around it in the mid part of the 20th century were the same and we both shared a love of the beauty of the world God created.
Alnwick in the 1950s (Old postcard)
It seemed a simpler time then in the early 1950s, post World War 2, when people didn’t have much and what we had we often shared with our neighbours. There didn’t seem to be the striving towards acquiring more and more possessions and most people were in the same boat – rationing was a great leveler – and there wasn’t as much plastic about. Both our mothers carried string shopping bags for their daily shop and the weekly groceries were delivered by a boy on a bicycle in a cardboard box on the front of it (it must have taken him ages to deliver everything!). The travelling shop stopped in each street once a week and the fishmonger brought round locally caught fish door to door and for the rest of the fresh items we went for the daily ‘messages’ to the butchers, bakers etc. (no fridges in those days), while the milkman was up early in the morning to deposit a glass milk bottle on each doorstep. I was delighted to discover that his grandfather was the lamplighter whom my granny used to tell me came round at 8pm every night just after curfew sounded on the Town Hall clock in Market Place. We agreed that it wasn’t all idyllic though – most of the buildings were a sooty black from the coal fires and the fields on the edge of town smelled strongly of invasive fertiliser in early spring to encourage the crops to grow in the cold northeast climate – perhaps that is why he came to care so much for the environment round us.
In his final book Love The World David traces the history of the universe and encourages us to care for the Earth. He invites us to look upon our planet and care for it as God does.
In the chapter on Grasses, he writes ‘grasses grow from their base… So they are almost indestructible surviving fire, flood, frost and drought, grazing animals and mowing by humans. Grasslands support and sustain more animals than any other habitat… Let us remember that includes us.‘ and he continues with a poem.
Photo by Gary Fultz on Unsplash
Lament for a hay meadow.
The year the farmer ploughed the hay meadow
I felt bereft; it had been there since my birth.
Machinery had done its work
And the creatures had lost their home.
Sweet grasses, corn cockle and bunting,
Lark song from the sky,
The yellow buttercup and the bees,
All disappeared without time for goodbye.
Lady’s mantle and her bedstraw,
The oxeye daisies and the camomile,
Never to be seen anymore.
To lose flowers, birds and creatures
Feel like a total eclipse of the sun. [© David Adam]
Photo by Chinh Le Duc on Unsplash
A prayer
Creator God
We are astounded at your care for the world,
For each tiny bird and bush,
plant and person, insect and animal;
For each star and constellation in the immensity
Of the beautiful universe that you created;
And as you looked at everything you had made
You saw that it was good.
Help us to look upon our earth and its people
With the same love and learn to care for it
as you care for all things, from the greatest to the least
So that we leave our planet ‘as good as new’
For future generations who come after us
So they may see that everything is beautiful
As you intended.
(© Carol Dixon – based on ‘God makes the world’ from The Book of Books – The Bible retold for young people by Trevor Dennis)
My friend (& co-writer for Godspacelight) Sheila Hamil has written a wonderful song about seeing the world with God’s eyes which she is delighted for me to share with you.
May it be our prayer too.
Painting of the Earth from space, Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash
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Return to Our Senses explores approaches to prayer that connect our spiritual practices to everyday life, awakening all our senses to a deeper relationship to our loving God. Some of the practices have existed for centuries and only require us to tap into the rich knowledge and practices of ancient followers of Christ to access them. Others will be newly created, springing fresh from our imaginations and creativity, specially designed for intimacy with God in our present culture. This is a great book for group study.
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