How Do We Find You, O God?--Aug. 7, 2019

[From Aug. 8, 2009 archive; 

adapted from my Aug. 9, 2003 journal]

 

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 perhaps not when we would 

rather sleep than hear your word. 

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 63; 149; 125; 90

2 Sam. 12:15-31

Acts 20:1-16

Mark 9:30-41

 

Selected Verses 

Ps. 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.”