Redeeming the Season

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Today's reading titled Redeeming the Season was written by Tim Gustafson. Lisa wanted a way to redeem the season. So many of the autumn decorations she saw seemed to celebrate death, sometimes in gruesome and macabre ways. Determined to counter the darkness in some small way, Lisa began to write things she was grateful for with a permanent marker on a large pumpkin.

Sunshine was the first item. Soon, visitors were adding to her list. Some entries were whimsical, doodling, for instance.

Others were practical, a warm house, a working car. Still, others were poignant, like the name of a departed loved one. A chain of gratitude began to wind its way around the pumpkin. Psalm 104 offers a litany of praise to God for things we easily overlook. God makes springs pour water into the ravines, sang the poet.

He makes grass grow for the cattle and plants for people to cultivate. Even the night is seen as good and fitting. You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. But then the sun rises.

People go out to their work, to their labor until evening. For all these things, the psalmist concluded, I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. In a world that doesn't know how to deal with death, even the smallest offering of praise to our Creator can become a shining contrast of hope.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Psalm 104 verses 10-23. He makes springs pour water into the ravines. It flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field.

The wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the sky nest by the waters. They sing among the branches. He waters the mountains from his upper chambers. The land is satisfied by the fruit of his work. He makes grass grow for the cattle and plants for people to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth, wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts. The trees of the Lord are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. There the birds make their nests. The stork has its home in the junipers. The high mountains belong to the wild goats.

The crags are a refuge for the hyrechs. He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down. You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God. The sun rises, and they steal away. They return and lie down in their dens.

Then people go out to their work, to their labor until evening. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for the multiple good things you've placed on this earth and in our lives. Make our lives a grateful offering of praise to you. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Stephen, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.