Genesis 18:1-5,10 (NIV)
The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”
“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”
. . . Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Genesis 30:37-39 (NIV)
Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.
Triune God,
Our eyes behold the streaked, speckled, spotted dimensions of Your glory.
GLORY be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
We bow low before You. If we have found favor in Your eyes, do not pass us by.
Jesus is our living water. Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is life.
Let us drink deeply of Your goodness that new life may abound. Amen.
The blockquote is a stanza of “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
