3849. Thank You for dark streets.

Satisfy me in the morning with Your steadfast love,
    that I may rejoice and be glad all my days.
Make me glad for as many days as You have afflicted me,
    and for as many years as I have seen evil.
Let Your work be shown to Your servant,
    and Your glorious power to her children.
Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon me,
    and establish the work of my hands upon me;
    yes, establish the work of my hands! Psalm 90:14-17

Cause me to know Thy lovingkindness in the morning,

For in Thee do I trust.

Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk,

For I lift up my soul unto Thee.

Deliver me, O LORD,

Teach me to do Thy will,

Quicken me, O LORD

For I lift up my soul unto Thee.

Last night the monthly Dunbar Spring Neighborhood Association gathered together yet one more time. And the conversations wended long, as we discussed the challenges of recycling and how China is no longer going to take most of our plastics and the real issue is contaminated materials and I am totally guilty of not understanding how thoroughly I need to wash out my yogurt containers and take off all of the little lids, and how expensive and ineffective it is to distribute door hangers telling homeowners when Brush and Bulky pick-up is, and what are Living Streets and the rising number of deaths of pedestrians and cyclists and motorcyclists which are obviously Dying Streets, and big new apartment complexes piling high all around us and bringing in national franchises like Starbucks that threaten local coffee shops like Exo, and yes, bunny signs to warn drivers not to squish little bunnies. And on and on about streetlights, and what is better, dark streets or bright streets or something in-between streets.

And I left early. Well, half an hour after the meeting was supposed to end, but long before the conversation of whether we should also have coyote and javelin signs as well. And I got to walk home down the very darkest street, Second Street, my street.

And I am not foolish enough to walk on the sidewalk in the dark because of the uneven surface beneath my feet and low overhanging mesquite branches tangling in my hair and spiking my face, so I always walk in the predawn and post-sunset dark down the middle of the street.

The thing is, unless it is dark, you can’t see any stars.

The stars that are ever present, big and beautiful and declaring the glory and power and majesty of God cannot be seen when it is bright outside, even though our idea of brightness is much, much smaller than the reality of spinning galaxies almost out to infinity.

So it makes sense, the being glad for the affliction of days and the evil about, because thus we can see His work and know His glorious power.

Fair is the sunshine,
  Fairer still the moonlight,
And all the twinkling starry host;
  Jesus shines brighter,
  Jesus shines purer,
Than all the angels heav’n can boast!

Seasons of drought.

Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,
    You who have done great things. Who is like You? Psalm 71:19

Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it. Isaiah 42:5

For in Him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28

Prayer is the light of the spirit, and the spirit, raised up to heaven by prayer, clings to God with the utmost tenderness. It is the longing for God, love too deep for words, a gift not given by humans, but by God’s grace. –John Chrysostom, 347-407

The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it. -Henri Nouwen

Creator God, You taught us to pray. Now help us pray for our daily bread while laboring with love for those who hunger. We confess that we often feel weary, incapable, and uncertain of how to live in this world. Help us to find rest in your presence and comfort in knowing that you are active in all living things. Show us how to hallow Your name while striving for justice in our relationships and in society. May our whole lives become a prayer, ever to Your glory. Amen.

More and more, my prayers have become silence, resting in His presence without words, opening up my soul to be filled with His Spirit.

I am also ever-more-aware of the unity of His Spirit, connecting so many beings, much like the deep creosote roots which stretch across the Sonoran desert, bringing refreshment to a dry, thirsty land. His word echoes again and again each new morning, across the years and across the seas, He is one, and He is in us and we in Him. 

The creosote breathes in the morning, opening up its stomata while the air is cool and relatively humid; this is when it undergoes photosynthesis, changing light energy into matter.

The creosote provides a place of shelter for a wide range of community of algae, fungi and bacteria. It is from a combination of this and dust that has settled on its branches between storms that allows creosote bush to pick up nine times as much phosphorus and sixteen times as much nitrogen than is in regular rainwater. Community makes it stronger.

May I, like my beloved creosote, be a sweet fragrance in this weary world today, hallowed be His name.