I thank God for the beauty of his creation. I feel closest to Him when I'm in nature, observing the colors of His paintbrush. When my friend posted a photograph of this beautiful sunset I could sense the quiet and peacefulness of the scene. I just had to paint it using my brushes. I pray that you will hear God's voice as you look at this scene.

My challenge is how do I live with this as a follower of this Jesus; certainly not with platitudes and preaching. Rather, it’s more like face to face, conversation, listening and reexamination of my prerogatives and all that tough stuff.

In a time of great fear, uncertainty and sadness, as many of us were reassessing our priorities and developing a new appreciation for our relationships, [this poem] suggested a vision of what could be and perhaps even a finer understanding of what abundant life really means.

OverwhelmingIy I find hope in the the truth honesty and resilience of many people that I know and have had the good fortune to walk along side.

Now that there are fewer distractions—fewer cars, planes, public events—we have the solitude to hear the unspoken palpitations which always hover around us. We can listen to our hearts and hear other hearts beating. So too does God always call out to us, to reach for us.

Watching and listening to the birds brings me real peace and joy. I think of my loved ones who have gone on to their heavenly home a lot when I sit in that space. And sometimes I join my voice with theirs, in prayer, in song.

I may not be a picture of serenity, but I can draw on the strength of these words when I feel most vulnerable, and look toward a more normal routine when the time is right. All will be well.

This prayer for peace and transformation grounds and focuses me with a message of love, pardon, union, faith, hope, light and joy that can overcome hatred, injury, discord, doubt, despair, darkness and sadness. These words are comforting, but also a call for action.

I realized that I needed to memorize a prayer to keep me focused. I had forgotten about this, but it came to mind when the theme for this week was mentioned – to think of a prayer important to us. Even though I hadn't prayed it for a long time, I found that it was still in there.

So I think I know the secret,
Learned from many a troubled way,
You must seek Him in the morning
If you want Him through the day.

Lily Greenberg shares three of her poems.

Somedays I feel that I hear from Him. Quietly but directly. Somedays I don’t. But every day, nowadays, when I pray in the hope of feeling God’s presence, I feel good and blessed. I have a new and developing tool in my “nearness to God tool box”. When all my other tools for feeling God’s presence become possible again I will be very happy but I will also remain grateful for this new tool and the ways it is grounding me during our “new normal”.