I am an emeritus professor from Cornell University and was a Commissioned Lay Preacher in the Presbyterian Church (USA). For many years I have followed the Daily Lectionary as printed in the Mission Yearbook of my church. For each day of a two-year cycle, the lectionary lists four psalms and three other scriptural passages--usually one from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. My practice is to copy down a verse or two from one of the psalms and from each of the other three passages. After I have written out all four selections, I reflect upon them, rearrange their order, and incorporate them into a meditation. Sometimes I retain much of the original wording; sometimes all that remains of a selection is an idea that was stimulated when I read the original words. All selections are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. For the Daily Lectionary, see the link below.

How Do We Find You, O God?--Aug. 8, 2015

[From Aug. 8, 2009 archive]

In a dry and weary land, how do we find you?

Sometimes in the sanctuary; sometimes when
we welcome a child in your name.  Sometimes
even when we pray for a child who is dying.

But probably not when we would
rather sleep than hear your word.

Lectionary Readings
Psalms 63, 149, 125, 90
2 Samuel 12:15-31
Acts 20:1-16
Mark 9:30-41

Selected Verses
Psalms 63:1-2
O God, you are my God, I seek you,
            my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
            as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
            beholding your power and glory.

2 Samuel 12:21
Then his servants said to [David], “What is this thing that you have done?  You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive; but when the child died, you rose and ate food.”

Acts 20:9a
A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, began to sink off into a deep sleep while Paul talked still longer.

Mark 9:36-37
Then [Jesus] took a little child and put it among [his disciples]; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

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