the song, monday

Monday, February 2

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

          

Opening Prayer: O Lord, as we spend time with you and your Word this day, let us hear the words of your Ancient Song; and let us listen closely for the Song of God that rises in our hearts.  In Christ.  Amen.

Scripture Reading for the Day: Isaiah 12:1-6

Reading for Reflection:

 

     In the darkness something was happening at last.  A voice had begun to sing.  It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it was coming.  Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once.  Sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself.  There were no words.  There was hardly even a tune.  But it was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard.  It was so beautiful he could hardly bear it.  The horse seemed to like it too; he gave the sort of whinny a horse would give if, after years of being a cab-horse, it found itself back in the old field where it had played as a foal, and saw someone whom it remembered and loved coming across the field to bring it a lump of sugar.

     “Gawd!” said Cabby.  “Ain’t it lovely?”

     Then two wonders happened at the same moment.  One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count.  They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices.  The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars.  They didn’t come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening.  One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out—single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world.  There were no clouds.  The new stars and new voices began at exactly the same time.  If you had seen and heard it, as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves who were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing.

     “Glory be!” said Cabby.  “I’d ha’ been a better man all my life if I’d known there were things like this.” (The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself    

                     

Closing Prayer: And you will say in that day, “I thank you, God.  You were angry but your anger wasn’t forever.  You withdrew your anger and moved in and comforted me.  Yes, indeed—God is my salvation.  I trust, I won’t be afraid.  God—yes God!—is my strength and song, best of all, my salvation!”

     Joyfully you’ll pull up buckets of water from the wells of salvation.  And as you do it, you’ll say, “Give thanks to God.  Call out his name.  Ask him anything.  Shout to the nations, tell them what he’s done, spread the news of his great reputation!  Sing praise-songs to God. He’s done it all!  Let the whole earth know what he’s done!  Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out, O Zion!  The Greatest lives among you: The Holy of Israel.” (Isaiah 12:1-6, The Message)