An Unlikely Moment of Worship

“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it.”—Psalm 24:1

Every month is special in God’s eyes. Some may seem better to us than others, and in New England, August is right up there.

• It’s a month of heaven all around—warm evenings with nature’s symphony playing in the background.
• It’s a fruitful month, when the harvest and berries and apples begin to appear in abundance.
• It’s a time to remember that just as with the start of another year of school, there can be goodness in routine and sticking with it.
• It’s a month of hot and humid days followed by crisp days and cool nights that remind us that we live in the now and not yet of Eternity, and to look forward each day to both.
• A month, like every month, to celebrate life—but especially one in which both children were born and when beloved parents married. 

To everything there is a season, and this one, this treasure called August, is especially sweet. And with early morning coffee in the Adirondack out back, it’s a realization that it is also something more:

A reminder, in the stillness without a breath of wind, with hints of yellow showing up here and there, of how much I love the majesty of the trees in my back yard and the endless beauty of living here in New England. That no matter where any of us live, God has ordained that we have been born for such a time and led to such a place as ours, and it is good, and none of it should be taken for granted... 

This is not meant to be political at all, but while staring up into the heights of the forest and being grateful for August and praising Him who made it all, it was a reminder that while I am neither what some would call a "tree hugger" nor an extreme climate change guy, the older I get, the more I am aware of the importance of being a practical, good steward of God's good earth… 

“Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him…” —Romans 12:1, Message

…Everyday, ordinary things like walking more instead of driving everywhere, picking up trash along the road, eating more organics, even using plant-based cleaning products instead of pouring who knows what down the drain. And whenever possible, purchasing items in more easily recyclable glass or aluminum rather than plastic—especially the kind that many recycling centers will no longer accept.

But what difference does any of that make, and what does that have to do with worship, anyway? Perhaps just the reminder that my backyard, and August, and the endless beauty around me is God's, on loan and to be thoroughly enjoyed, and that every little thing anyone does to steward all of that matters. To Him.

And that’s worship that sings from the inside out.

“It is God's world still. It has been given to man not absolutely, but in trust, that man may work out in it the will of God; given, may we not say, just as a father gives a child a corner of his great garden, and says, ‘There, that is yours; now cultivate it.’”—Philipps Brooks