God Speaking

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands”

(Psalm 19: 1)

New Years day, here in Vancouver Canada, dawned crisp and cold, the mountains covered in a blanket of sparkling fluffy white snow. One of my granddaughters and her boyfriend planned an amazing trek up one of the massive peaks surrounding our city and rather than sleeping away the morning after the celebrations of the party the night before, they rose at 05:30AM, drove to the foot of the mountain, aiming to be at the best position to see the first sunrise of 2018. They steadily climbed until they had the prime spot. They were rewarded with one of the most splendid displays of God’s glory as the sun rose and filled the sky as only the Creator could with a breathtaking sight of shimmering yellows and golds as the mighty sun rose into the sky and sprinkled light on the snow-covered trees and flooded the mountain with day light.

I was very proud of these two to attempt the climb and be humbled by God’s display of glory. Many of us are unable physically to climb huge mountains, but it was a good lesson for me to stop and look up from man made structures that surround us in cities, and not to forget God’s beauty is all around us and not to lose the awe of how nature constantly declares his glory. The psalmists over and over again remembered to attribute glory to the Creator inspired by what they saw around them.

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8: 1)

Another valuable lesson I learnt, this one from a friend, was to look for his glory in the unexpected, she had observed and marvelled at, the beauty of trees that had lost all their leaves in winter. She pointed out to me the intricate patterns the bare branches formed as they stood starkly against the sky. Before she had made me aware of this I had not bothered to look too closely at a bare tree. Now I too marvel how each tree has its own distinctive personality.

Another unexpected reminder of his majesty is the dark clouds hovering over us announcing a storm. Beautiful poems are written about white puffy clouds against a blue sky, but when we study those storm clouds the colours are very dramatic, with grey mingling with creamy beige and dense black, God’s paint brush, swirling through the air as the colours change minute by minute.

We live by the sea, so yet again we have a moving canvas, as the water changes from dull green, topped by white crests, to sparkling clear green, sprinkled by rays of sunlight.

God’s beauty is all around us and we need to keep looking so we never lose that wonderful sense of awe of the majesty of our Creator. The Psalmists never forgot who formed the earth and that the earth constantly reflects his glory

“In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” (Psalm 102: 25)