Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
TUESDAY, June 21
1 Samuel 6:1-16. The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
Imagine what the scene must have been like: the people of God had been routed in battle and their most sacred relic taken as loot. They were listless and felt abandoned. For seven months they had lived without their unifying icon of God’s presence among them.
Then one day, as the people were in the fields reaping grain, two unescorted cows came over a hill, pulling a cart with the ark of the covenant in tow. Who would have thought such a thing would happen?
We are told the people “went with rejoicing to meet it.” Surely this must be an understatement! I can imagine much wonder and puzzlement and amazed exuberance. This story underscores that God’s hand moves mysteriously in ways we cannot imagine or predict. It is easier to tell the movement of God’s hand after it has passed than in its passing.
—The Hymnal 1982, #677
PRAY for the Diocese of Okrika (Province of the Niger Delta, Nigeria)
Ps 97, 99, [100] * 94, [95]; Acts 5:27-42; Luke 21:37—22:13
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