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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff.

Good morning. A few years ago our whole family took ourselves off to a big holiday park for a week. Because we are all scattered around the country, it’s only when we plan events like this that we all get to be together.

When we got to the park we all assembled in the main chalet and everyone was standing around discussing important stuff like the traffic on the journey and who was going to sleep where, when the youngest grandson – then about two – burst into the room.

And instead of joining the main group, he charged past his uncles, aunts and cousins. and headed straight for the patio doors where he stood, waving his arms, squealing and looking in a baffled way at the rest of us. He couldn’t understand why he seemed to be the only one who had noticed that just outside the window were a dozen ducks. And as far as he was concerned that was the most interesting and exciting thing that was going on at that point – certainly much more interesting than the traffic on the M4.

And I think he had a point.

It’s a simple and sad fact that, particularly as we get older, the practical business of our daily lives does pretty much fill our horizon. But the world is full of extraordinary and wonderful things that we are somehow too preoccupied to notice and enjoy.

Jesus pointed out just that the common wild flowers we all walk past every day are actually very beautiful. That little boy was giving us all a very similar lesson.

Father God, we get so tied up in the routines of our lives that we too often miss the gifts of beauty with which you have surrounded us. Open our eyes to see and our hearts to rejoice in Your gifts. Amen