Psalm 19 (NIV)
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

Ecclesiastes 5:15 (NIV)
15 Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart.
They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands.

Romans 1:20 (NIV)
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Broken vessels. We come into the world naked and we leave the same way. Reading the cremation authorization for my mother in law it points out that once we have her body cremated, it can’t be undone. I wonder what kind of incident took place to have that as part of the agreement. Nonetheless, death is final. It can’t be undone.

Every day we see the glory of God in everything from the fog so thick you can’t see the bare trees waiting for the next round of leaves, the amphibians preparing for the next season, the sun rising behind the clouds to burn off said fog. The stars that we can’t see because of light pollution, the amazing beauty of the people we meet and get to know. God is all around us.

Yet, so are we. We take the beauty of the day and trash it. Some of us abuse the people God created, or the environment He created. We choose to go the wrong way. We’re broken.

Every morning the sun comes up, and every evening is sets. Every day there is amazing beauty around us and friendships to live for. Every day His eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen and are there to be grasped and understood.

Yet, broken vessels don’t hold to much, so we have to keep going back.

Lord, may my hands drop the gatherings of my earthly toils and embrace the beauty you’ve created for us. May my toils be for you, not me.