Daily Devotional #1,593

I waited all through the Fall, the Winter and now finally it is hot enough for me to do this. I have my well-used  Doughboy pool in the backyard and keeping it up turns out to be kind of a hobby for me. But I got it all in  shape and put on the solar cover for a week and got enough heat to raise the temperature of the water to make it  comfortable. And after nine months of storage I took out my queen-sized blow-up mattress and threw it in the  pool and after dinner I crawled up on it…and just lay there. By that time the sun was getting down towards the  horizon and it all just felt right. And I just stared at the sky and listened to what was going on all around me.  There was a faded half-moon and then wispy clouds that were just barely moving. I thought about how long it  had been since I just stopped and looked at these things. Then there were the sounds. There was the cooing of  one bird and a kind of squawking of another. There was just the gentleness of breezes and then in the bush next  to me I was visited by a busy hummingbird. These are things that I normally wouldn’t pay attention to while  I’m out there working…but today I was just quiet, and I listened and looked. And the verse that came to mind  was from the Psalms that tells us to “Be still and know that I am God.” With all that we do and all the  distractions that our culture puts before us, we miss so much. As I looked at these simple things while floating  on my raft, I had that wonderful sense of the greatness and creativity of this God of the Bible. I loved that  feeling of having my eyes and maybe even my heart being opened up to this God through a quiet visit with his  creation. Why don’t you find a place today and just be still? Be quiet. Listen. And maybe you will see and  hear things that you’ve forgotten about. And just maybe you will feel that tender closeness of this God of  creation and redemption and then what you see and hear and feel…just might make their way into your heart. If  it does…you’ll want to go back for more! Here’s our Bible verse for today…  
Psalms 46:10 NLT “Be still, and know that I am God!”  
Remember I’m praying for you!  
With love, PJ