Tuesday, February 13, 2024  

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Scripture Reading
Isaiah 40:21–31

Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (NRSV)

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Reflection

A few years ago, my best friend from college and I took a trip to Seattle. My friend really wanted to go to Mt. St. Helens. I will admit I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about hiking around a volcano that had catastrophically erupted forty years ago. I was tired from the hike we had done the day before. I was not appropriately dressed for the snow and wind that we were experiencing hiking along the ridge overlooking the valley created by the 1980 eruption and subsequent landslide. And the views were underwhelming thanks to the weather. We played the time-treasured game of “Cloud or Mt. St. Helens?”

I kept hoping as we hiked along this ridge that there would be a moment where the clouds would part and we would have a spectacular view. When I was getting tired, I would tell myself that just around the bend here, the clouds would disappear, and the view would be amazing. Well, that bend there, just over the ridge there ... spoiler alert, that moment never came.

But as I look back at the pictures I took on that day, there was a sort of majesty in the constantly changing scenery of the clouds. I may not have enjoyed them as much in the moment, but they were just as much a part of God’s creation as the mountain I kept hoping to see.

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Prayer
Wonderful Creator, though I am tired and weary, help me to open my heart and my mind to all the glories of your creation. Amen.

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Written by Katie Patterson, Manager of Worship and Youth Ministry Programs

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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