Ps.8:3 – When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place;
I have been thinking for several days how easy it is to be blind to God’s splendor all around me. The cares and troubles of the day breed blindness in our souls causing us to be apathetic to majesty and glory that literally surrounds us. Surrounded by walls, informed by media on screens, and lives cluttered by daily woes cause us to become oblivious to His greatness and goodness all around us. Sometimes our routines, even the spiritual ones, fade into monotony and block Him out. Recently, we had saturation services at church and I was able to unplug and soak for awhile. Apparently my spiritual senses were stirred; I suddenly saw Him more clearly. He was there in the moon and stars in their perfect arrangement on my morning walks. He was also there in the curious baby raccoons who have made a home on the church property. Their curious faces and passion to live and survive caused me to see God in His creatures. Here is how Thomas Chalmers describes all of this.
“It is truly a most Christian exercise to extract a sentiment of piety from the works and the appearance of nature. It has the authority of the sacred writers upon its side, and even our Savior himself gives it the weight and the solemnity of his example. “Behold the lilies of the field; they toil not, neither do they spin, yet your heavenly Father cares for them.” He expatiates on the beauty of a single flower, and draws from it the delightful argument of confidence in God. He gives us to see that taste may be combined with piety, and that the same heart may be occupied with all that is serious in the contemplation of religion, and be at the same time alive to the charms and the loveliness of nature. The psalmist takes a still loftier flight. He leaves the world, and lifts his imagination to that mighty expanse which spreads above it and around it. He wings his way through space, and wanders in thought over its immeasurable regions. Instead of a dark and unpeopled solitude, he sees it crowded with splendor, and filled with the energy of the divine presence.”
Don’t be surprised when the Lord crowds in on you in His creation and His creatures. After all, that’s why they exist. They live to point us to His greatness. Maybe He is breaking into your world today.
Has me thinking how easily we can get stuck our routines and how routines lead to monotony that becomes the perfect environment for tunnel vision. Christians can lose the advantage of spiritual perspective when disengaging and having a say in what they do and with whom. We can gain that back when we surrender all trust back to Jesus, otherwise we are still calling the shots and living by our terms.