{"id":349,"date":"2020-04-21T09:41:36","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T16:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/e-votional\/e-votional-april-21-2020\/"},"modified":"2020-04-21T09:41:36","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T16:41:36","slug":"e-votional-april-21-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/e-votional\/e-votional-april-21-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"E VOTIONAL APRIL 21 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

AND GOD SAID, \u201cI\u2019M LONELY\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my E Votional yesterday (April 20) my theme was loneliness. Here is how I opened it: \u201cEven before our country was hit by the Corona Virus we were undergoing an epidemic of loneliness. We know that loneliness is as damaging to your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. And 1 out of 5 Americans say that they feel lonely. With the Corona Virus, it just makes it worse. When you are stuck in your home or apartment, you don’t realize how much you miss people until you’re no longer around them. A smile, a touch, being physically close to someone one — all boost your spirits and release feel-good hormones. We are created to connect with one another, to help one another, to love one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today I want to expand on that theme. To help us on the way I want you to read the wonderful poem by James Sheldon Johnson:<\/p>\n

"The Creation"
\nJames Weldon Johnson – 1871-1938<\/p>\n

And God stepped out on space,
\nAnd he looked around and said:
\nI’m lonely\u2014
\nI’ll make me a world.<\/p>\n

And far as the eye of God could see
\nDarkness covered everything,
\nBlacker than a hundred midnights
\nDown in a cypress swamp.<\/p>\n

Then God smiled,
\nAnd the light broke,
\nAnd the darkness rolled up on one side,
\nAnd the light stood shining on the other,
\nAnd God said: That’s good!<\/p>\n

Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,
\nAnd God rolled the light around in his hands
\nUntil he made the sun;
\nAnd he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
\nAnd the light that was left from making the sun
\nGod gathered it up in a shining ball
\nAnd flung it against the darkness,
\nSpangling the night with the moon and stars.
\nThen down between
\nThe darkness and the light
\nHe hurled the world;
\nAnd God said: That’s good!<\/p>\n

Then God himself stepped down\u2014
\nAnd the sun was on his right hand,
\nAnd the moon was on his left;
\nThe stars were clustered about his head,
\nAnd the earth was under his feet.
\nAnd God walked, and where he trod
\nHis footsteps hollowed the valleys out
\nAnd bulged the mountains up.<\/p>\n

Then he stopped and looked and saw
\nThat the earth was hot and barren.
\nSo God stepped over to the edge of the world
\nAnd he spat out the seven seas\u2014
\nHe batted his eyes, and the lightnings flashed\u2014
\nHe clapped his hands, and the thunders rolled\u2014
\nAnd the waters above the earth came down,
\nThe cooling waters came down.<\/p>\n

Then the green grass sprouted,
\nAnd the little red flowers blossomed,
\nThe pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
\nAnd the oak spread out his arms,
\nThe lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
\nAnd the rivers ran down to the sea;
\nAnd God smiled again,
\nAnd the rainbow appeared,
\nAnd curled itself around his shoulder.<\/p>\n

Then God raised his arm and he waved his hand
\nOver the sea and over the land,
\nAnd he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!
\nAnd quicker than God could drop his hand,
\nFishes and fowls
\nAnd beasts and birds
\nSwam the rivers and the seas,
\nRoamed the forests and the woods,
\nAnd split the air with their wings.
\nAnd God said: That’s good!<\/p>\n

Then God walked around,
\nAnd God looked around
\nOn all that he had made.
\nHe looked at his sun,
\nAnd he looked at his moon,
\nAnd he looked at his little stars;
\nHe looked on his world
\nWith all its living things,
\nAnd God said: I’m lonely still.<\/p>\n

Then God sat down\u2014
\nOn the side of a hill where he could think;
\nBy a deep, wide river he sat down;
\nWith his head in his hands,
\nGod thought and thought,
\nTill he thought: I’ll make me a man!<\/p>\n

Up from the bed of the river
\nGod scooped the clay;
\nAnd by the bank of the river
\nHe kneeled him down;
\nAnd there the great God Almighty
\nWho lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
\nWho flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
\nWho rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
\nThis great God,
\nLike a mammy bending over her baby,
\nKneeled down in the dust
\nToiling over a lump of clay
\nTill he shaped it in is his own image;<\/p>\n

Then into it he blew the breath of life,
\nAnd man became a living soul.
\nAmen.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s startling that the poet declared that God was lonely, and that was His motive for creating the heavens and the earth and all that is within it, including human beings.<\/p>\n

We are created to be in community and fellowship with one another AND with God. Is it sacrilegious to say that God wants to be our friend? No, I don\u2019t think so. What else is a friend other than someone who stands by us, who supports us, who cares for us, no matter what.<\/p>\n

The loneliness that we all feel from time to time is not only a yearning for friendship with others but also a yeaning for God\u2019s love and a daily, deep relationship with Him.<\/p>\n

Our prayer today is from St. Augustine: \u201cThou has made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AND GOD SAID, \u201cI\u2019M LONELY\u201d In my E Votional yesterday (April 20) my theme was loneliness. Here is how I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-votional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}