Have You Met the Awe Inspiring Power of God’s Creation?
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Good Morning Friends,
Scientists are now saying that having a sense of awe helps us to live longer and healthier. It is being in the presence of something that transcends our understanding of things. It helps us to see from the inside out. It helps us to see in new ways and binds us together in a way that makes us kinder to each other. What scientist have not said specifically but I am is that the most beautiful thing we can experience is the awe of the mystery of God. We may get a sense of it when we look into the night sky and imagine ourselves dancing with the stars. Perhaps we sense it in great music and the assembly of believers in worship or in our personal relationships. Undoubtedly Jesus inspired a sense of awe with others attached to a place of worship and meeting. He had the upper room. He had synagogues. He had the Temple. He had the hills. He had the homes of friends. He had prayer. In today’s scripture Jacob has a meeting with God in a place that was not familiar to him and in this place he receives a reaffirmation of the blessing of Abraham and a brief but deliberate disclosure of God’s active involvement in the lives of people. Today’s story is about a meeting and the blessing that creates in us a sense of wonder. And as I contemplate it I think about all the meetings I will have today and the possibility that God will be part of them. And even as I write and send out today’s devotional, I realize that the most important meeting I will have is the one I am having this moment and the next in the astonishment of the reality of God in this place we call earth and also in my own personal experience. Yes I walk with God and at same time realize that God is so much larger than that experience. Have You Met the Awe Inspiring Power of God’s Creation?
Scripture: Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the LORD stood beside him and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place–and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
Genesis 28:10-17 (NRSV)
Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Acts 2:43-47 (NRSV)
The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat.
Psalm 19 (NRSV)
Message: Our meetings with God prepare us for the other meetings we must face. It is here that we discover that sometimes God’s blessings make it difficult to focus on God….that comfort is usually not the avenue to maturity. In today’s scripture we have a meeting about a blessing but it is also a meeting intertwined with a meeting that is to come. Jacob was blessed to see God but he was on the run… a fugitive. His desperation…his discomfort with a head on a rock pillow causes his eyes to see things they had never seen before. Sometimes hardship is a great place to see God. Sometimes even though it is hard to get up and write this message, there is a blessing in it that was not what I expected….a blessing that prepares me for my meetings. Today is a blessing not about worldly things but spiritual things as well….things like awe, and grace and love. Yes today we begin to understand the creator through His creation… the spiritual journey and growth of relationships through prayer magnified by the mystery of it all… that God is personal and so much more. So get up and get moving. It is not too late to catch the sunrise.
Pray we realize that God is with us as a companion. Pray we realize that He will watch over us. Pray we realize that He will guide us. Pray we realize that we have His personal guarantee. Pray that when we are mired in a pit of our own making that God will send a down a ladder to give us a way to climb out. Pray we experience the presence, promise, providence and power of God. Pray that our perspective on life be changed. Pray that we stop just caring about ourselves. Pray we experience salvation from our sins, transformation in our lives and reconciliation in our relationships made possible through the mediator between heaven and earth…between God and man….Jesus.
Pray we be in awe of Jesus but get to know him in and through the lives of others. Pray we worship with awe and joy. Pray we retain a sense of awe and wonder of God and creation itself.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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