Happy New Year

We've said our good-byes to 2005, and are slowly getting comfortable with our new friend, 2006. I was pretty happy to send 2005 on his way. I've had better years. I'll leave it at that.
Yesterday morning at church, Danny Z preached a sermon on 'creative worship'. His main objective was to encourage those of us who were listening to enter into 2006 as a year in which we learn to creatively worship a creative God. Indirectly, he spent some time dismantling the monopoly that 'music' has gained in the worship department. I have a love/hate relationship with music; church music in particular. At times it has certainly been a vehicle in which I've been brought into the presence of God in worship. But singing that same song a few days later or the next Sunday may not have the same effect. There's more at work than just the magical formula of singing the correct 'chant' in the right mood or tone... Anyway, bottom line is that I love God, and sometimes I tell him that in song, sometimes in a poem I write, sometimes in my mind as I observe his work in my life or the life of a friend, sometimes as I hear someone else speaking about how God has showed up in their life. Often though, as I'm 'walking in the garden' with God, hiking through a park or the wilderness, or gazing at the sky on a clear night, I marvel at God the creator. This is why I post this picture to start 2006. A leaf, having yet to fall from a tree, frozen in the ice of winter. It's art. It's part of God's creative work, his ongoing work.
(If you're interested, the picture was taken last week in Jackson Park)