Christ Church Amherst

A Flower in the Crack
I was deep into a run through an urban area covered in sidewalks and pavement, my mind wandering in all different directions. My eyes were attentive only to other people to create physical distancing and traffic to avoid being hit. Then they caught upon one brilliant color where there was nothing else. They fixed on that spot as it drew near, gazed upon it as I ran past and even looked back to verify what I saw. A single black-eyed Susan had somehow managed to find the smallest of cracks, fought against all odds to grow tall and brilliant, producing this single flower where there was nothing else. It was a bold statement of hope in a barren landscape.

We are all in need of such bold, colorful expressions of possibility. This is what the message of Jesus is to the world and we who inhabit it. He comes seeing in the sinners, tax collectors, cast offs, and socially removed something else. He looks upon the world and declares that he comes not to condemn it, but to save it. He finds the cracks in all of us, the place where through forgiveness grace can be planted and grow. It may seem impossible to believe looking upon the world, ourselves or others that something new and beautiful can flower in such difficult circumstances and hardened hearts. Where we see impossibility, God finds possibility; where we think nothing can flower, a colorful sign can grow proclaiming hope.

That single flower served as a reminder that this is what God sees in us and our world through Jesus Christ. It was the encouragement among so much being avoided to stand as a brilliant flash of color and statement of hope in the landscape of our lives and world.

-Pastor Daven

Feasting on the Word links us to an ancient Christian discipline of meditating on God’s word. It employs a small passage of scripture read four times in four different translations interspersed with silence to engage with scripture more deeply. This devotional act lets God’s word speak to us. It is a great meditative practice which only requires a little bit of time!

Today’s passage is Psalm 121.

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