Season of Creation Devotional is here

A new Season of Creation daily devotional has been produced by Queensland Churches Environmental Network (QCEN), a commission of Queensland Churches Together.  A devotion has been written for each day during Season of Creation, which runs from 1^st September – 4^th October.  Each devotion consists of a reflection on a Bible verse, a prayer and a saying.  The QCEN Season of Creation devotional will be available for free, as an app from Apple or Google app stores.  For those who prefer a hard copy, a book of the devotions is being printed.

I have recently had the pleasure of reading through the devotional. Wow! I was blown away by the quality of the reflections, prayers and verses from the contributors.

The beauty of the devotional is its variety.  QCEN sought contributions from a wide range of people, from different denominations and backgrounds, from all over Australia.  The variety gives the devotions an incredible depth.  At the same time, although each devotion is different, they all manage to portray a sense of awe at the wonder of Creation.  After reading the devotions I was reminded of the interconnectedness of Creation, of the peace we can feel when being in nature, and the beauty that is all around us.

Here is an unformatted excerpt, Day 3 of the devotion, written by Rosie Bugden:

Reflect

In Psalm 63 we join with David the psalmist in expressing our deepest desire for God our creator. “My soul is thirsting for you” he proclaims; a thirst that can only be quenched by God’s living water.

Sometimes it is easy to feel awe and wonder at God’s creation: the yellow-filled trousers on a bee’s legs, the exquisite colours and songs of our birds, the symbiotic relationship between a cocoa plant and its pollinator, the myriad of sparkling stars in the night sky or the first gasp of life of a newborn. It is in such moments we can begin to understand that everything is connected. At other times, like in the psalm, we run the risk of feeling parched, weary and waterless as our common home becomes more degraded and destroyed, her biodiversity lost, our human family unloved, tossed aside or their suffering ignored. It is in such times that we must seek out in prayer our God in whom we take shelter and rest, so we can re-group and go out joyfully singing!

The Psalmist personifies God in an image from nature that speaks to our hearts: God as a mother bird gathering her chick under her wings “I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings”. If we allow our hearts to connect with God’s creation we will feel called to live in right relationship with it and each other -to become stewards not exploiters of this wonderful gift.

Pray
God of all creation,
you poured out yourself with such love for us and our world.
You sent your Son Jesus to walk beside us,
To share with us our every distress but also our joys.
In a world that seems to be increasingly falling apart,
Yearning for peace and healing
We pray
Sing to our hearts,
Call us to take shelter under your wing.
Draw near so we too can go out
singing with a joy that is yours
To work for a better world
Amen

Yearning for God
I yearn
I thirst
I hear you calling me
Singing me home.
Come my love
Out of the desert
Those parched, dry, lands.
Beneath your wings I take my rest,
I feel your warmth, the beating heart
Within your breast,
Within your breast,
Strong,
Constant,
Beside
Me

QCEN are thankful to the NCCA for providing funding for the devotional via the Glenburnie Grant scheme.