This summer, Incarnation families are gathering weekly at Alcova Heights Park, or at home, or in another lovely natural spot for a relaxed time of family prayer and nature exploration—read this post for a quick primer. Here are this Sunday’s wonder-worthy scriptures:
Isaiah 55:1
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.
Psalm 42:1-2
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
Nature focus: water.
Jesus has many names, which help us know more and more about him. One of the names of God that the prophet Jeremiah wrote was “the fountain of living water.” Hundreds of years later, Jesus offered living water to thirsty people (John 4, John 7).
What do we know about water? It sustains life—for us, for plants and animals throughout the world. It’s powerful enough to carve canyons out of rocks! It’s cleansing. It's refreshing! (We’re probably all experiencing that this summer. Cranky?? Get to some water! Drink it, find a pool, turn on the sprinkler, plop a toddler in the bathtub…)
What does it feel like to be thirsty? What does it feel like to quench your thirst?
Options for wondering all week:
Can a penny hold water? Try this surface tension experiment.
Delight in filling the pets’ water dishes and watering plants.
Prepare a pitcher of refreshing water, waiting in the fridge to restore spirits after the heat saps everyone’s energy. Kids can test and find favorite flavor infusions: cucumber, mint, lemon slices . . .
Enjoy the water in whatever summer-y form you encounter it. Welcome refreshment.
Photo and prayer by Weber Ivy: Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susans) beside Lake Barcroft, August 10, 2017. Thank you, Lord, that even in the fever heat of the year’s hottest days, there are still cooling vistas to discover at the end of a long walk in the sticky heat, shaded places along the way where we might rest and take a drink, and lakeside gardens to refresh our weary souls.
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