St Peters RC Church Hamilton

What is your concept of exotic?

Is it somewhere in the tropics?

Or simply an exciting faraway place

With features unusual and people of a different race?

It could be somewhere entirely imaginary,

A land with plants really extraordinary.

Imagine a hot and steamy jungle

With lashes of lush plants all of a tangle.

There could be slivery snakes in undergrowth

With stealthy wild animals none sight showing,

Sure footed monkeys leaping from tree to tree top,

Whilst animal families waiting to pounce, if you stop!

Making a jungle visit a dangerous safari,

Although glorious by night beneath a velvet black starry sky.

There are too, other worldly places

Most found as a destination a curious traveller prizes,

Set where golden sand on land the sea embraces,

As in the areas with hot, dry, long summers

And to us, welcome mild, wet winters.

Think then of Mediterranean type areas,

And easily you can imagine the local pleasures

Glorious, soft, sandy beaches, set against turquoise sea, a treasure.

Transports of delight, a holiday destination

Offered up by the foreign host of a nation.

A far get away, wondrous tropical place

Your imagination probably did often embrace.

Now if you are blessed to actually travel,

Ensure your appreciation does express such a marvel.

A sad, sad feature for those without belief,

Is when they find a glorious tropical reef

They will have no one on high with whom to share

Their dream of a holiday without compare.

For just as a trouble shared is a trouble halved,

A joy shared, is a joy happily compared.

“When love is true it floods every part of your being – when it is entrusted to God it satisfies every desire of your soul.” (Entry for July 24 in a Dayspring Calendar “Celebrating You and Me.”)

When we pray to the Creator in appreciation,

This enhances our delight in His creation.

To offer all thanks, express our gratitude

Enriches life by appreciation’s attitude.

Then when you feel closer to the world’s Saviour,

You see more glory around you at the hands of the Creator.

And as beauty lies just about everywhere,

You will not have to travel far just to compare.

Possibly to your real surprise

Beauty is nearby clothed in a different guise.

Not in our countryside the sunny glory of the tropics

Our green and pleasant land offers a different topic.

Verdant, vivid green, lush countryside,

Acres of wild flowers of beauty provide.

Come unexpectedly upon a ribbon of scarlet red,

The annual wild poppy, a finest spectacle of colour ahead.

A truly amazing, most colourful sight,

God glorifies our countryside ever just right.

This meadow classic so very beneficial to butterflies and bees,

Should in its beauty, certainly bring us prayerfully to our knees.

For me this enables a most happy memory

Of carefree childhood days, running through fields of the wild poppy.

Who would want to travel afar

When the glories nearby brim over in summer?

Our open countryside a mass of wildflowers,

My happiness at home long lives through the hours.

It is beneficial to be content with what we have got,

Take a count and it will add up to a lot.

The sight of a poppy field, wildflowers a plenty,

Hay meadows, rich habitat with delicate so pretty grasses,

Is one of the most magical of an English summer sights,

Where a wilderness of wild flowers will ever be our delight.

Not befitting the usual concept of exotic,

But nevertheless in developing ready delight this is embryonic!

Lord, I wonder how many delights are awaiting someone praying to give birth to a benefit. We will never know the answer, but in praying lies great contentment and for this experience of joy I thank You.

“The Lord will yet fill your mouth with laughter and Your lips with shouts of joy”, (Job 8 v 21 NIV) whenever we look at the world contentedly, without longing for the unobtainable.

May we learn to find joy in the everyday details of life. “The LORD your God will bless you...in all the work of Your hands” (Deuteronomy 16 v 15) we are told, indicating part of this is up to us and our attitude towards life.

Rich are the many blessings at Your hand, awesome works of creation. Let us look at these and rejoice. “What You give them they gather in. You open Your hand, they are filled with good.”(Psalm 105 v 28)

Thank You for all that is exotic. Thank You for all that is mundane, yet able to be seen as beautiful. I Often think this about weeds, for how pretty they can be!

For all that delights us, excites our interest and appreciation, truly I thank and praise You. “Bless Yaweh, my soul, from the depth of my being, His holy name...He contents you with good things all your life...” (Psalm 103 v 1, 5 TNJB) Amen.