Reading (Psalm 8)
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Thought
Are you a breakfast person? What I mean by that is do you eat breakfast every day? I know that for some people they might only have breakfast on occasional days, rarely or never at all. As for me, I am definitely a breakfast person. I cannot remember the last time I missed having breakfast. It doesn’t matter what time I get up or what I am doing that day, my day does not start well unless I have had breakfast. If you are having breakfast I wonder what you like to have. Do you go for hot toast covered in butter and plenty of marmalade, or does it need to be a full English complete with bacon and eggs, or like me, is porridge your breakfast of choice? I can happily have porridge for breakfast every single day of the year, summertime or winter. As far as I am concerned, porridge needs to be made with milk and have some sultanas added for sweetness.
It will come as no surprise therefore to discover that when I am at my parents during the week I am to be found making porridge for us all at breakfast, after all it is my parents who instilled in me the necessity of a good breakfast before embarking on your day. I generally make the porridge in a large glass bowl, but last Wednesday I found that I was already using the glass bowl for something else, which gave rise to the problem of what was I going to use to make the porridge in? I searched around in the cupboards until I came across a big glass measuring jug. I thought that it would probably do the job, I wasn’t expecting it to be as good; after all, it wasn’t what I would usually use. However, what I found was not only did it do the job, it was actually better than the bowl I usually use. The handle made it much easier to manage when the contents became very hot and it was easier to dish out from. In fact I’ll be using the jug every time now rather than the bowl I used to use. Had I not encountered the problem of what to do when the bowl was not available I would never have thought to use the glass jug and so would not have experienced how much better the jug was to use than the bowl.
Many of us can have a tendency to stick to what we have always done, especially if what we have always done seems to work quite well. It is not until we are faced with a situation where we have to try out an alternative that we appreciate that there may be better ways of doing things. The effects of climate change have forced us to consider how we are looking after our planet and the precious resources that we have. This need to adapt and change will take many of us outside of our comfort zones and the tendency may be to continue doing what we have always done without reflecting on if there is actually a better way. It is not always an easy decision to make, what is better is not always simple or clear.
The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) is currently taking place in Glasgow. World leaders are meeting together with the aim of uniting the world to tackle climate change. Each of us has a responsibility to do our bit, we are after all custodians of the planet that God gave us to live in. As we try to balance our own needs with the needs of others and the needs of our planet in the light of climate change, we need to ask God for guidance and wisdom in the days ahead for all those at the conference and for ourselves too.
Prayer
Father God, you have given us dominion over your creation. We remember all those who are meeting together at COP 26 and we ask for wisdom in their discussions, that they will find ways of moving forward in unity towards caring for your planet and everything in it.
Amen
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