A landscape artist, painting, does not always stand at an arm's length from his canvas. He must not limit his attention to the isolated details of what he is doing. Occasionally he steps back to view his work from a distance. He needs to see how his thousands of small brush-strokes fit together to produce an overall result.

Likewise, our perspective on life is much improved if sometimes we can step back and see it whole. We can become so occupied with its daily brush-strokes that we have no real perception of the whole scene we are painting on the canvas of the ongoing years. Our attentions can be so consumed by the requirements of daily living that we have little awareness of the dimensions and directions of life itself.

Here in worship today may we step back from the canvas a little, and try to see the picture whole. A stroke here or there, the colors we've used, the lights and shadows we have painted in - what does it all come out to be? What should we do now? What colors next? What strokes to complete the art we began so long ago?

This is worship: to stand before God and try to see our life as it is seen by him. Here, in this experience now, we look beyond the varied episodes of our daily doings and see the glory of it all. We look beyond the brush-strokes which make the art to see the art which the brush-strokes have made - and are making.