Study from God’s Word… Psalms 8, 9, 19, 21, and 24 … Passage for Reflection: Psalm 8: 3 – 5 … NIV 3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
My Journal for Today: F. LaGard Smith, my devotional “shepherd” in the book he has authored, which I’m using for my morning times with God, asks a very pertinent question to today’s world. He asks, ”When was the last time [you] looked with wonder into the night sky and knew that [your] significance was in God alone?”
If you’re reading with me here today, you’ll have to answer that one for yourself; but each year for the past 15 years or so, my wife and I have been going with a group of adults from our church who attend what you’d likely call “Sunday School,” to a retreat on Kentucky lake, which is a lake which was created in 1811 when the New Madrid earthquake split the earth so wide that the Mississippi river ran backwards and backfilled an immense crater, creating beautiful connected lakes in southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee.
And there is a place, a point near the resort where we gather for our church retreat; and on that point there is a sitting bench; and each year I go out to that point and watch the sunrise in that place while I’m doing my morning devotionals. And when I get there, often the air is crystal clear, I can see the stars twinkling down from the heavens; and then on many of those mornings in that place I’ve been treated to wondrous and awesome displays of God’s beauty. [See Ken-Lake Photo above] And in those moments, enveloped by the AWESOME majesty and beauty of God’s creation, I feel so insignificant … but so, so loved.
You know, I agree with Dr. Smith that the word “AWESOME,” which I just used above, has been devalued in our current day. It’s used far too often as a “catch-all word to express giddy and youthful excitement,” and so, when you see something truly “awesome,” … something really “awesome,” fashioned by the hands of God – as this scene I’m sharing here – the word, which is right to describe God’s awe-inspiring handiwork, has lost its edge for us when used to describe God’s creation in His display of His glory.
But, when I’ve seen those scenes, up there at Ken-Lake, I know of God’s “awesome” nature; and I realize that only a loving and caring God could paint such a picture for my sight to behold. And it’s like He’s telling me, “Bill, if you think this is my beauty, you haven’t seen anything to what I’m going to show you in glory;” … and I come away with such great hope and feeling so love by my Creator God. I hope you have seen such “awesome” displays from God through His nature, … like the displays out there in the deserts which I’m sure inspired King David to write words like those which God shared with all of us through David and His word, … the words in Songs like this one highlighted today.
My Prayer for Today: LORD, You crown me – yes, me! – with Your glory and honor; and occasionally You show Yourself in Your creation. Thank you, Lord, for these brief, but beautiful, reminders of Your glory. Amen
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