Friday, July 10, 2026

Psalm 65:9-13 

You visit the earth and water it; 
    you greatly enrich it; 
the river of God is full of water; 
    you provide the people with grain, 
    for so you have prepared it. 
10 You water its furrows abundantly, 
    settling its ridges, 
softening it with showers, 
    and blessing its growth. 
11 You crown the year with your bounty; 
    your wagon tracks overflow with richness. 
12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow; 
    the hills gird themselves with joy; 
13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks; 
    the valleys deck themselves with grain; 
    they shout and sing together for joy. 

I can almost picture David sitting on a hillside overlook, taking in a landscape shaped by God through weather and time. 

It reminds me of a hiking trip I took on the Superior Hiking Trail with some colleagues from work. One of them, Pastor Paul Gauche, would round a bend in the trail, stop, spread his arms wide, and say, “Wow. Thank you, God.” 

He practiced that kind of gratitude mile after mile. It seemed to give him energy while the rest of us—soaked by rain and chewed up by mosquitoes—spent our time focusing on the negatives. 

Now, I am not saying that the quality of our lives of faith is simply a matter of perspective. That is not the point. The invitation here is not merely to be moved by the beauty of rain or plentiful fields, but to recognize their source—and, by extension, our own. 

In our point-and-click, add-to-cart world, it can be easy to forget where things come from. When we spend too much time forgetting that all the beauty around us comes from God, we can slowly become numb even to grace itself. 

David points us to creation as one of the first places we can go to remember that the universe is not empty or indifferent. We are not simply inhabitants of Carl Sagan’s “pale blue dot,” but beloved creatures held within God’s good creation. 

So what does all of this mean? It means that today, as you breathe the air, feel the warmth of the sun, or smell the freshness of the rain, you can remember that these are gifts from God. Life itself is a gift. What might happen if you spent some time opening that gift today through the practice of gratitude, like my friend Pastor Paul did on the Superior Hiking Trail? 

– Pr. Jason 

God help me to open all of my senses to your presence and activity in the world. May every breeze remind me of your Spirit, every sunset remind me of your Son, and every drink of water your grace in my baptism. Amen.