Friday, August 15
- Scripture: 1 Peter 1:8 – “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”
- Reflection: Savor the world. Pause and drink it in, taste it, revel in it.
Sometimes it isn’t what we can see, but the ‘unseen’ which inspires wonder. Our minds cannot process everything that is happening around us. Yet life is unfolding, even as we attempt to digest the information our senses gather in. Godself is larger than our comprehension, yet we experience ephemeral glimpses of that presence through thr world in which we live.
Writer George Monbiot from the Guardian tells us, “As the psychologist Richard Wiseman points out, “At any one moment, your eyes and brain only have the processing power to look at a very small part of your surroundings. … your brain quickly identifies what it considers to be the most significant aspects of your surroundings, and focuses almost all of its attention on these elements.” Everything else remains unseen.” Full article.
The writer added, “In June this year, a powerful light – 125 watts to be precise – was shone into a corner of my own darkness. Two naturalists from Flanders, Bart van Camp and Rollin Verlinde, asked if they could come to our tiny urban garden and set up a light trap. The results were a revelation. I had come to see the garden – despite our best efforts – as almost dead: butterflies and beetles are rare sights here. But when Bart and Rollin showed us the moths they had caught, I realised that what we see does not equate to what there is. There are 59 species of butterfly in the UK, but 2,500 species of moth, and our failure to apprehend the ecology of darkness limits our understanding of the living world.”
What aren’t we noticing? What would we see, if we slowed down, or changes how we encounter the world? Cultivate moments today that fill you with awe and wonder, experiencing the divine within the mundane - Spiritual Practice Prompt: Spend a few moments meditating on what brings you awe—a sunset, a piece of music, or the stars.
Song:
- “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” by Justin Timberlake: https://youtu.be/ru0K8uYEZWw?si=42LTnMU37xAGnJzx
“Awe is what we feel when we encounter something vast, wondrous or beyond our ordinary frame of reference. It evokes a sense of mystery and wonder. And, given its documented benefits, awe might be our most overlooked, undervalued emotion.” — Dacher Keltner
“Joy is not in things; it is in us.” ― Richard Wagner
August 15 Daily Devotional