This is the tenth in a series of daily Lenten devotionals put together by Mother Leslie for this season of Lent, 2025. We hope this proves to be uplifting to you through your Lenten journey.
If you would like to see previous devotionals, Look under "Home Worship Materials" on the Site map, or click here. We apologize for the dealy in posting this. We llost internet for four days.
Day 11: Saturday after the 1st Sunday in Lent
Today’s Theme: Security in the Storm
(Note: Today’s devotional was created after six tornadoes and high wings traveled through our area and several states during a massive storm causing multiple deaths, injuries, and damages)
Poem: The Storm-Struck Tree
As the storm-struck oak leaned closer to the house —
The remaining six-story half of the tree listing toward the glass box
Of the kitchen like someone in the first tilt of stumbling —
The other half crashed into the neighbors’ yards, a massive
Diagonal for which we had no visual cue save for
An antler dropped by a constellation —
As the ragged half leaned nearer, the second storm of cloying snow
Began pulling on the shocked, still-looming splitting, and its branches dragged
Lower like ripped hems it was tripping over
Until they rustled on the roof under which I
Quickly made dinner, each noise a threat from a body under which we so recently
Said, Thank goodness for our tree, how it has accompanied us all these years,
Thank goodness for its recitation of the seasons out our windows and over
The little lot of our yard, thank goodness for the birdsong and squirrel games
Which keep us from living alone, and for its proffered shade, the crack of the bat
Resounding through September when its dime-sized acorns
Land on the tin awning next door. Have
Mercy on us, you, the massively beautiful, now ravaged and charged
With destruction.
We did speak like that. As if from a book of psalms
Because it took up the sky
-------Jessica Greenbaum (1957- ), teacher, social worker, and poet
Proverb:
Those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
They will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
-------------Psalm 91:1-2
Painting: Lightning Dance, Clyde Aspevig (1951- ), Colorado- based landscape painter
Prayer: In the Midst of the Storm
Let us raise our hearts to our Creator,
who is making the heavens and the Earth.
Let us sing praise to our Savior,
whose mercy endures forever,
and sustains the weary with unfailing compassion.
Your creating energy, O God, is awesome in its power:
we worship You and give you glory!
God is our refuge and our shelter,
our steadfast companion in times of trouble or danger.
We turn to you in trust, Holy One,
for You abide with us even in the midst of the storm.
Place your hand of protection
over all who are in danger,
over all who seek the lost or injured,
we humbly pray.
Guide the hands and the hearts
of doctors, nurses, and first responders,
of clergy and chaplains,
as they seek to comfort and heal the injured and the traumatized.
Blessed Jesus, you know our cares and concerns:
gather under your sheltering wing
all those for whom we pray.
Amen.
-------------Leslie Barnes Scoopmire