by Rev Douglas Brauner

Hope for humanity.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“For there is no distinction: or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 3:22b-24 English Standard Version

Many of us have seen spaghetti westerns where a jet’s contrail criss-crosses the sky. We wonder why they didn’t wait until the white streak disappeared before they shot the scene.

Pikes Peak, Colorado

I waited for this contrail to disappear, but it was getting dark and it persisted to the point I finally took the picture and thought, “There’s got to be a Praying With The Eyes devotion in this shot somewhere?”

I hadn’t been out taking pictures for awhile, and I felt compelled to go to the Garden of the Gods for a set of sunset pics. I used a film that I hadn’t tried before and was anxious to see what the clouds might produce that evening.

Things didn’t turn out the way that I had hoped.

I arrived at the park later than planned. The sun had already set behind Pikes Peak, forcing me to go to my Bronica camera, which was my second choice. Then the clouds evaporated, and the dry Colorado atmosphere and the sunset was anything but spectacular.

Then a contrail ruined what was even the slightest hope for a decent picture. Ugh!!!

God created humanity to walk in perfect union with him in the beauty of his garden park. However, we thought it better to be god than to know God. The human factor has scarred what God had intended, and yet, it is through the scars of God that we are healed. The contrail disappears in the One who has healed us.

Who has healed you?

Though we know that the human factor still affects our lives, the promise remains that one day we will experience a life without sin, death and the host of hell. The day is coming when we will no longer desire to be God, but to walk with him in his new garden park prepared for us.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado