91热爆

Good morning.聽 I do a lot of walking in woods as often as I can, and to me the trees are like our elder brothers and sisters in creation.

Each day this week, I am reflecting on some words from Psalm 104 as part of the season of creation, and today the trees take centre-stage:

The trees of the Lord drink their fill,
the cedars he planted on Lebanon;
There the birds build their nests;
on the treetop the stork has her home.

There鈥檚 so much about trees that causes us to marvel: 聽they stand majestically, bearing witness to the passing of centuries, forming rich and complex ecosystems, even communicating with one another beneath the surface of the earth. They bear fruit and breathe oxygen into our atmosphere. But the psalm concentrates on one particular aspect: 聽they give shelter, they provide a protecting home for many other creatures in their leaves and branches: insects, plants and primates, and human beings also find a home in the forests. For us it can be a place of refuge and livelihood, of healing and learning and, for hermit saints as well as people like you and me, a place of prayer and solitude, where union with God the creator goes hand in hand with union with his created world. 聽But we also see these magnificent habitats despoiled and plundered, swept away as an inconvenient barrier to efficiency and profit. 聽Perhaps a deeper appreciation of the generous hospitality of trees 聽will lead us to value its irreplaceable grandeur more fully.

O God, our refuge and protection,
we rejoice in the mighty trees
whose heavenward reach and generous embrace
provide shelter for your creatures.
Teach us to cherish them and the rich life they sustain. Amen.