Simple Things

Ted Loder, in his prayer, ‘The kettle of the day,’ wrote something that woke up my brain.

The prayer is a simple one full of small gratitudes.

“For nothing to do,

                          sitting still,

            listening,

        watching,

            thinking,

        praying,

      sleeping.

For loving and being loved.”

I decided to sit and think a moment about what I so often ignore or take for granted.  

The question I asked my self was what it might be like not to have: 

   

a brain to think,

     ears to hear,

   eyes to see,

      a nose to smell,

 taste buds to taste,

     hands to touch,

      legs to walk. 

All ordinary abilities we unmindfully brush aside as nothing to give much thought to.   Yet so important to our every day lives.

In a year of feeling limited, confined and unable to gather with friends, family; and do just normal activity.  It is good to be reminded to appreciate things we do so naturally that we don’t even recognize as blessings.  

And one other precious truth we may miss.

                                     God’s living Spirit blowing in the wind.

¹ O come, let us sing to the Lord;

   let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 

² Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

   let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 

³ For the Lord is a great God,

   and a great King above all gods. 

⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth;

   the heights of the mountains are his also. 

⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,

   and the dry land, which his hands have formed. 

⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down,

   let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 

⁷ For he is our God,

   and we are the people of his pasture,

   and the sheep of his hand. 

O that today you would listen to his voice! 

          (Ps.95)