Our Bible verse for today: “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; for he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers.” Psalm 24:1-2 (CSB)
Our thought for today: “It all belongs to God”
The other day, on my day off, I wanted to go for a long motorcycle ride. It’s the end of August and motorcycle season is drawing to a close. I haven’t been on too many day-long rides this year and so I was looking forward to it. But it rained that day. And not just a little. It rained hard, all day long. It was also cool. The high temperature for the day was only 64 degrees (odd for August) and the wind was blowing.
As I was moping around the house looking for something to do my wife told me I should go hiking instead. I reminded her that it was raining outside, raining hard. She said, “So, you can hike in the rain, can’t you?” I felt like my manhood was being called into question so I pulled on my hiking boots, drove to one of my favorite trails, and went hiking in the rain.
At first my mind was on that bright sunny day I didn’t get, and the beautiful winding country roads that I was not riding on. But then the Lord called my attention to the lush greenness of the deep woods. He pointed out to me the bubbling creek, the turtles perched on the fallen trees, the crispness of the air, and of how the rain made everything seem so fresh and clean. He reminded me that I have always liked hiking on cool overcast days, especially in a misty rain, and I remembered that “Laughter in the Rain” by Neil Sedaka has always been a favorite song of mine (as sappy as it is!). I distinctly sensed the Lord telling me “Jim, the bright sunny days and the country roads are mine, but so are the cool rainy days and the wet trails and bubbling creeks. It all belongs to Me and in their own way, each is a gift to you.”
God owns it all. He owns all of creation. The country roads, the wet trails, the bubbling creeks, the sunny skies and the rain clouds, it is all His and it is all beautiful in its own way. It’s all part of our Father’s world.
My prayer is that through this month of thinking devotionally about caring for God’s creation, we have all become a little more sensitive to environmental issues and the responsibility we all have to do our parts to take good care of this planet. It all belongs to God and we have been tasked by Him to be good stewards of it.
Enjoy this beautiful creation. It’s a gift to us from our Father. And I encourage you to do your part to take good care of it.
Oak Hill Baptist Church