Thinky-thoughts
I was inspired to fannish thoughts by today's devotional post from The Upper Room...
Here was today's devotional:
Ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you.
- Job 12:7 (NIV)
Today's Devotional
Reading about the Creator being revealed to the shepherd Moses on mount Horeb, I imagine the sheep continuing to bleat as they had before Moses turned aside to look at the burning bush. They probably stomped their hooves, walking between Moses and the fire. As I imagine this, I notice something: Sheep don’t need to remove anything to get closer to God because they don’t wear shoes. Sheep are always in intimate contact with the holy ground of God’s presence.
As sheep of the Good Shepherd, we all start out like the sheep, “barefoot” and intimately in touch with the One who made us. But soon we learn to lace up our shoes and put barriers between ourselves and the Holy One. We slip on confining assumptions linked to race, gender, class, and other human categories that limit us and insulate us from the close contact God yearns to have with us.
God said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exod. 3:5). Every day, that invitation calls us to abandon whatever material perspectives and preoccupations keep us away from God. Our purpose is to live close to God. And when we put off whatever blocks that, God’s purpose will ignite in us.
Niger Woodruff (Tennessee, USA)
Thought for the Day: What “shoes” interfere with my experiencing God’s closeness?
Prayer: Dear Holy One, help us to put aside all that blocks our awareness of you so our feet can feel the holy ground that is always beneath us. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Those yearning to break free of prejudice
The part about being barefoot naturally made me think of hobbits. Did JRRT have Eru create hobbits as beings who went unshod for similar reasons? If he did, was it conscious or unconscious on his part? Reading this makes me think about the idea of hobbits being more open to nature and to others; yet we still see hobbits as being very insular and prejudiced against those outside their sphere. OTOH, when troubles come, they throw off those prejudices and come together with compassion.
As I said, something to think about.
Here was today's devotional:
Ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you.
- Job 12:7 (NIV)
Today's Devotional
Reading about the Creator being revealed to the shepherd Moses on mount Horeb, I imagine the sheep continuing to bleat as they had before Moses turned aside to look at the burning bush. They probably stomped their hooves, walking between Moses and the fire. As I imagine this, I notice something: Sheep don’t need to remove anything to get closer to God because they don’t wear shoes. Sheep are always in intimate contact with the holy ground of God’s presence.
As sheep of the Good Shepherd, we all start out like the sheep, “barefoot” and intimately in touch with the One who made us. But soon we learn to lace up our shoes and put barriers between ourselves and the Holy One. We slip on confining assumptions linked to race, gender, class, and other human categories that limit us and insulate us from the close contact God yearns to have with us.
God said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exod. 3:5). Every day, that invitation calls us to abandon whatever material perspectives and preoccupations keep us away from God. Our purpose is to live close to God. And when we put off whatever blocks that, God’s purpose will ignite in us.
Niger Woodruff (Tennessee, USA)
Thought for the Day: What “shoes” interfere with my experiencing God’s closeness?
Prayer: Dear Holy One, help us to put aside all that blocks our awareness of you so our feet can feel the holy ground that is always beneath us. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Those yearning to break free of prejudice
The part about being barefoot naturally made me think of hobbits. Did JRRT have Eru create hobbits as beings who went unshod for similar reasons? If he did, was it conscious or unconscious on his part? Reading this makes me think about the idea of hobbits being more open to nature and to others; yet we still see hobbits as being very insular and prejudiced against those outside their sphere. OTOH, when troubles come, they throw off those prejudices and come together with compassion.
As I said, something to think about.