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File:Old World swallowtail (Papilio machaon gorganus) underside Italy.jpgDay 39: Wednesday in the Sixth Week of Lent

John 3:17

God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

We should never forget how wondrous is the world.  How brilliant its colors.  How sweeping its grandeurs.  How haunting its solitudes.  How deep its seas.  How filled with the undiscovered it remains.

Every flower, every leaf lit by the sun, every dance of the bumble bee, every mad scramble of squirrels on the rooftop, every flitting bird pausing for a drink, every creature hiding beneath the soil.

Even the fearful creatures are wondrous in their way, the spider’s web, the wolf’s howl, the snake’s flickering tongue tasting the air.

The thriving life in a drop of pond water waiting to be glimpsed through a microscope, the hidden majesties of the stars, the strange creatures in the depth of the sea – it is all wondrous.

“What are humans that thou art mindful of them?” asks the psalmist, enraptured by the wonder of humanity’s unique place in the world.  Other poets will gaze upon the natural world with awe, and puzzle over the evils that we do.  Stories will be told that chill the soul.  Why we give bibles to children I do not know.  Abraham with a knife.  Lot in Sodom.  The slaughter of innocents.

Wondrous beauty.  Tragic sorrows.  Grave evils.  Simple, yet precious kindnesses.  This is the world.  Wars. Betrayals.  Adulteries.  Fidelities.  Friendships.  Braveries.  Compassions.  God would rescue it all.  God would rescue us all.

God would free us from every bondage.  God would heal every wound.  God would free us from all hardness of heart and soul.  God would open arms and hopes and joys.  God would have us live the wonder.

Gracious and ever-present God,
whose mercy knows no bounds,
and whose arms are ever open to your world:
Grant that Christ may live in us and we in him
And make us joyful in your service.

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Images:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_World_swallowtail_(Papilio_machaon_gorganus)_underside_Italy.jpg  Charles J Sharp / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)