For a Conversation with God–Taking Shape

photo by Josh Scholten http://www.cascadecompass.com

¹⁴ The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features stand out like those of a garment.
Job 38:14

I don’t think much about the molding and shaping that I have undergone until I look in the mirror or at old photos.  Like the earth changes by the flow of water and waves, wind and quake, my body is in transition, stamped as if by a seal, adorned with gray, accumulating lines, wrinkles and sags like a treasured well worn garment.

There are many people who mightily resist aging with surgery, implants, hair dye and drugs.  Then there are those of us who simply feel it happening, knowing we are being sculpted by the potter,  even though the original glossy glaze is wearing off.

When earth is God-stamped with His seal, it is beautiful.  And so, sealed and delivered, are we.

photo by Josh Scholten http://www.cascadecompass.com

For a Conversation With God–Shaking the Earth

 ¹² “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,
¹³ that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
Job 38: 12-13

The dawn comes exceptionally early the first days of summer.  Birds are singing by 4 AM, with light creeping across the horizon soon after.   Yet there is a startling suddenness of day break–as if earth has been taken by the edges and given a good shake, so what is left is crisp and clear and clean for a new day.

I need a good shake every now and then to loosen the filth and debris that I’ve accumulated and no longer even notice in my life.  The orderliness of the daily sunrise and the birdsong are a reminder of control that I will never have or know.  I witness it rather than orchestrate it.

Like the dawn, I am shown my place.