A New Song

                                     

A human from the beginning. Photo credit here.

In watching Aspens leaves blown by the wind, skyward green and earthbound white twisting wildly, I hear (and see!) the trees singing for joy – enlivened by the Spirit filling this ancient world.

 

Then an Appalachian spring covers the forest floor in dazzling flowery jewels, dismissing the drab mud of winter, the brown crush of leaves – exultant in the caresses of the Sun – 

 

Or maybe the creeping light of day alerts cardinals, blue birds, house finches and Carolina wrens to the latest gossip and the air fills with tales and triumphs I cannot understand – but still my heart stirs.

 

Of course, the ocean, they say, holds the power of God – the mystery of depth incessantly rushing into conscious thought and then away – the creatures within too marvelous for the light of day.

 

I look at this body, each year changing, and consider the beginning: two microscopic cells – nothing more, nothing less – uniting, dividing (but holding together), differentiating, migrating and forming 

 

All the parts of me: the moving parts, the breathing parts

The sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell parts

The thinking and feeling

Reflecting and dreaming

Creating

 

A body like mine held God,

Knitted him together in darkness,

To be birthed in all of us

This Christmas Day – so

Sing to the Lord a new song.

-Written for an Advent Devotional, 12/24/23 with Psalm 96 as the inspiration