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Dear Glen Morris United Church, 

Sometimes during worship I will ask the question: Where have you seen God lately? 

It is an invitation for us to share the ways we know and trust God is a real and present part of our lives. But sometimes this can be difficult. Here are some ideas of where prayerful attention might help us feel more aware of God’s presence: 

  1. People! We know that we are made in the image of God, so we can see God in the love shared and given by others. 
  2. Nature! As we move into the season of Creation, this is a wonderful time to spend our week collecting moments where we see God in the beauty, wonder, and diversity of Creation. 
  3. Change! God is at work in the world - changing our hearts, changing our lives, and the world around us. Where there is transformation, there is God. 

Create no images of God. Accept the images that God has provided. They are everywhere, in everything. God is Change— Seed to tree, tree to forest; Rain to river, river to sea; Grubs to bees, bees to swarm. From one, many; from many, one; Forever uniting, growing, dissolving— forever Changing. The universe is God’s self-portrait.”

― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower

This week I saw God in the transformation created by the pollinator garden in front of the manse. Margaret Fleury planted this garden only last fall and already in a short year - there is change. Currently, there are four monarch caterpillars munching on the milkweed and many monarch butterflies have visited this garden. I’m in awe of how a simple act of stewardship has been an invitation for God’s transformative life-giving force to be at work right outside my front door. We so often are told that change takes time and requires changing the hearts and minds of people we are barely in relationship with. How amazing that we can change the world with a few small seeds and that the change doesn’t take long at all. 

 

In the changing of the seasons, may the Peace of Christ be with you, 

In the moments of kindness between you and another, may the Peace of Christ be with you, 

Immersed in the beauty of Creation, may the peace of Christ be with you, 

 

Yours in Christ, 

Rev Michiko