Sometimes the morning gets away from me  – often after a restless night sleeping and a huge ‘to-do’ list ahead of me –  instead of turning to the Word (the lectionary) for my first thoughts, I find myself at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and the daily newspaper.  An old-school-paper newspaper though nothing like pre-internet  editions so thin it is with anything to read of depth.

That being said, I do look forward to reading from front page to last, where the best is found – the comic pages – hands down the best section for a meaningful exploration of art, culture, politics and religion.  I have always appreciated the economy of comic strips – the blending of image and language to communicate one big idea.  One of my favorite comic strip creators said it so well.  The copy on the window panel?

I draw to support my writing habit.

Genius.

This is all to explain how though I began my day today with the newspaper and not the Word, I am yet grounded in His Word – and have been whispered to!

The Spirit speaks to us in so many ways, no?  God is everywhere – just friggin’ everywhere and in every thing, every person… and as obvious as that is to me at any given moment, it takes pulling my head and heart out of the sanctuary of the Word, church, or worship, to look around, see and re-know this again. My morning quiet time with the Word is not always where God will have me, but with me He always is.

And this morning it was at the Comics Page.  And I glanced upon a panel I don’t read often.  I share it here without any further rambling – don’t want to spoil the economy of the art.

Do you see what I see in this?  Do you hear scripture about vines, theology, salvation, performance vs grace, entitlement, knowing Jesus, US-THEM, et al?  For me and my little brain my head spins with the big ideas woven into this little panel.  And for the rest of my day I’ll be thinking about those ideas…as I make my way through a very long ‘to-do’ list with a peaceful disposition ushered in by the Comics Page this morning.

Praise Him.