25th Sunday after Pentecost

 You send your Spirit

to renew the face of the earth. (Psalm 104:30)

Yesterday, Linda and I walked out the front door up the block around Woodthrush Park and back home again. My first post-operative extended walk into the great outdoors. There’s something about walking that frees us to notice the beauty of creation. Walking, we can feel the crispness of the air, watch fall leaves float through the breeze, and take in the fall colors of the trees. As we walked, we talked of the beauty of it all.

I couldn’t help wondering if the birds noticed. Or, do they just fly about looking for food and caring for their young? My guess is, our consciousness of wonder and beauty is uniquely human. It’s the Image of God—a God likeness, that the Creator dared to bestow on us humans (Gn 1:26-27). Just as God delights in his creation; so too, we can’t help but take delight.

As we come to this last Sunday of Pentecost, we do well to recall with the Psalmist how the Spirit of God breaths on his creation “renewing the face of the earth.”