Having just returned from our Second Annual Thanksgiving trip to Death Valley National Park, I am filled with awe for God’s creation and even more so for God who had created all of these wonders.This year we went to the North end of the park to see things we had not yet seen. Death Valley is a wonderous and marvelous place. There are few spaces left in which human beings sense their smallness in the scheme of creation. The land scape of Death Valley is LARGE to say the least, and every ten miles or so it seems that you are in an entirely new ecological or geological setting. It is here where I go to be reminded not just of my smallness so I can regain perspective on life and ministry, but it is here where I can go to be reminded of my belovedness in being a creation of God myself that I am here to live my life emersed in the beauty that permeates Earth.

One of my favorite places in Death Valley is call The Artists’ Pallete. It is a mountainous region of the overlooks the salt flats that characterize Death Valley. There is something special about these mountains though. The geological processes that formed them included a period of hot water~I’m not a geologist I can not say much more~and this hot water brought to the surface all types of minerals not normally found on the surface of rocks. The result is about a mile-long stretch of mountains that vividly show all the major colors of the artist’s pallete–green mountain, blue mountain, gold mountain, pink mountain, red rock, and purple mountain. (We can not forget the purple, as my husband said it was made for me). The sight of the colors of these rocks and knowing that they are not painted but CREATED that way, simply makes me happy beyond belief! Yes, as an art professor once pointed out: I love colors, big bright vibrant colors! So when I see something like this, how can I not think that God loves me? How can I not see that God has made a place for me? How can I not envision a happy creating God with a host of Angles at God’s side having a great time creating such colors in the rock? How can I not celebrate the fact that two or three hymns are almost always circling through my head anymore and my soul can not keep singing the praises of God, whether I am having a good day and want to or not?

Creations such as this remind me how precious each of us are to be here, beloved and beloved, in this creation of God’s handiwork. It reminds me how God has been present, is present with, and may still be coming to be present with each of us in this creation. God is coming! …That is what the landscape clearly declared to me today. God is coming with a flourish of color and light and it is bound to be something not seen before for sure!

It is the start of Advent. God is coming! As the days grow shorter and darker with the changing of the seasons we need not have any fear for we are beloved children of God and God has created this world to hold us and support us, if we can only trust enough to that–but that’s another blog. For today let us know we are loved, that God has prepared a world for us to teach us how to be in awe, and that God is coming anew to greet us in this new season of the church, in this new season of the year, and in every changing season of our lives!

Welcome to the Women Who Speak in Church Advent Devotional, and yes for you loyal onlookers, you may have noticed, WWSIC has been playing with colors as well. We hope you will enjoy the Advent look of our blog this season.

The Peace of God Be with You.