Celebrate and sing!
Play your harps for the LORD our God.
He fills the sky with clouds and sends rain to the earth
so that the hills will be green with grass.
He provides food for cattle
and for the young ravens, when they cry out.
The LORD doesn’t care about the strength of horses or powerful armies.
The LORD is pleased only with those who worship him and trust his love.
Psalm 147: 7-11
Reflect on the word GOODNESS for a few moments.
How much I take for granted each day!
The sun and moon keep their appointed way. Clouds cause rain to drench the earth. Birds and beasts, flowers and trees always color the world. The seasons follow each other. The rhythms of creation are not dependent on human inventions.
Why then do we build more technology that destroys creation? Arm nations to conquer through violence and power? Pollute our environment? Go to war over the ownership of land and water?
Do I recognize your goodness each day? Or worship you as my God if I do not honor the work of your hands? Or walk past the person sleeping on the pavement while I stay preoccupied with my own needs? Can I sing of your goodness and love when I take you for granted most of the time?
And yet you continue to create and re-create, to heal and make whole, to care abundantly for us.
God of all creation, my God and my Creator, forgive me for taking you for granted and for failing to honor your Holy Name!
© Ranjini Wickramaratne-Rebera
For a number of years, our dear friend Ranjini Rebera wrote Biblical reflections for the use of Gungahlin Uniting Church and others, usually for Advent and Lent. We were privileged to receive these, as Ranjini had a working history of writing and teaching on a global stage. Each time she completed the considerable work on one of these studies for us she would announce firmly, ‘That’s it. That is the last one I’m writing. No more. End of story!’ But as Advent or Lent came around again she would start hinting that she’d had an idea for a reflection – and she would write another one.
When she completed a Reflection for Lent 2021, we were not to know that this really was the last one. Ranjini died on 13 October 2021. We miss her intellect, her leadership, her vivid personality, her artistic gifts, her deep faith and her pastoral heart. We have lost some colour from our world.
The Gungahlin Uniting Church Worship Team, where Ranjini served for several years, offers Ranjini’s study material, first produced in 2015, as we give thanks for her life shared among us.