2 Sm 1:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17 Ps 51:3-4, 5-6a, 6bcd-7, 10-11 Mk 4:26-34

Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer The Daily Reflections

“If a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.” -Mark 4:26-27

As a biology major at a science-heavy university, it can be a wonderful thing to learn about the world. Knowledge is valued in and of itself. We can tell how a seed grows into a tree and why the galaxies are shaped the way they are. This information is undoubtedly good and leads us to important discoveries and insights, but sometimes I long for that child-like wonder that comes from not knowing anything. Walt Whitman puts it nicely:

When I heard the learn'd astronomer, 
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, 
When I was shown the charts, the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the learned astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room, 
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, 
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself, 
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, 
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

During the winter, I love the look of freshly fallen snow, to just sit and enjoy the silence and serenity of it all. When I was a kid, snow days were spent outside until my fingers were numb (I always snuck a few mouthfuls of snow even though my mom told me not to). Today let us be challenged to take some time to appreciate something very small and recognize God in that thing. Like the mustard seed, there is more to the little things in life than we can possibly imagine at first glance.