Daily Thought for Sunday, 23rd March 2025
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.”
Isaiah 55:6
Full of wonder
Anikó Schütz Bradwell
Look at the world around you: nature waking up after the respite of winter; a beautiful star-studded sky on a clear night; the laughter of a child; the perfect petals of a flower; the strength of a wave crashing into the bay; the beauty of a hand stretched out towards you in tenderness and care; the magnificence of Beethoven’s symphonies and Michelangelo’s creations. The world is wonderful. It is God’s world, God’s creation, and in it and through it, God surrounds us in every moment.
It’s easy for us to forget that. We can get so immersed in the busyness of our everyday life that we can forget our need for God. Our lives are full: with family and friendships, the complexity of relationships of all kinds, with work and responsibilities, if we’re lucky also with the pursuit of interests and passions.
All of these can fill our lives, and somewhat distract us from a longing that we all have, and that we don’t often acknowledge. We are so used to being self-sufficient, to relying on our own strength and insight, that we can easily forget our need to connect with God too.
I believe that whether we have a faith or not, we all carry a longing in us to make sense of the world, to recognise a deeper meaning to life, and to feel as if we belong to something beyond ourselves. And whatever we believe, however we believe, God is there. God is there for us to glimpse in so many small moments and sometimes in great magnificence, too.
And we always, always have an opportunity to look up and notice God, and to partake in God’s creation, because we have a choice of how we want to live. Even when life is difficult and painful – perhaps especially then – we can decide to come to God, to lead a life with God and in God’s love, so that we may find hope, joy and peace in God.
Shall we pray?:
God of wonderful creation, turn our eyes and our ears, our lives and our all, to you. Amen.
Anikó Schütz Bradwell is minister of Lammermuir.