Wheat field Banner

Category: discipleship

  • Crowns of glory

    Crowns of glory

    Water droplet crown

    I like to watch water drip and form perfect little crowns as it impacts the surface beneath it. I’ve never quite managed to get the photo of that event I wanted, so this morning I’m using someone else’s shot to illustrate it (I couldn’t track down the photographer’s contact info, so I couldn’t give them credit). 

    What can I say? Some people say small things amuse small minds, but personally, I think we simply become blasé and ambivalent about much of what we see about us. We look and see, but we never truly see.

    The physics involved in creating the drop aside, I think that it is quite a spectacular event every time it happens. We tend to overlook it because it is small and common, but every one of those marvelous crowns is unique and really something to behold. It happens so fast that it is very difficult to appreciate without the aid of a photograph, but it is majestic, nonetheless. None of the crowns worn by any king or queen has the same beauty as that of a simple raindrop or the drip of atap. 

    That’s kind of humbling in a way. God dresses the everyday raindrop in a crown of splendor that surpasses the crown jewels of any monarch that ever lived. We are surrounded by infinite beauty created by God that we simply never take the time to notice. 

    The crown of the raindrop, the puff of a dandelion, the curve of a mouse’s whiskers, and more escape our gaze, yet they surround us. 

    When I am trout fishing, the flash of a rainbow as a trout leaps out of the water should take my breath away, but I often miss it in the excitement. 

    Such things are not seen with our busy eyes. They require us to be still and truly look at our surroundings. When we do that, we can sample a taste of the glories of God. 

    These things are to be appreciated, but not worshipped; after all, we worship the creator, not the created. Yet they can draw us ever closer to Him. 

    We are called to pause and think on Him. 

    Commit your way to the Lord;
        trust in him, and he will act.
    He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
        and your justice as the noonday.

    Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
        fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
        over the man who carries out evil devices!
     Psalm 37:5-7

    “Be still, and know that I am God.
        I will be exalted among the nations,
        I will be exalted in the earth!”
     Psalm 46:10 

    I can hardly wait until glory, when we will be able to truly appreciate all He has created without the veil of sin on our eyes. When we can do that, I think we will be much more able to give Father the praise and glory due His name. 

    When was the last time you stopped and were still? I mean, truly still with no background music, no cell phone, just you and God and the wonders of His creation. When was the last time you paused to look at the wonders of His handiwork? 

    If you are like most of us, it has been too long. Take some time today and just look for the crown jewels our Lord has put in your path. 

    Be blessed

    Kevin


    You might also enjoy these

    Down to the River – the message behind an old Spiritual song

    The reason everyone knows the truth

  • What Do You See?  Opening our spiritual eyes.

    What Do You See? Opening our spiritual eyes.

    stylized Adam and Eve hiding in the garden

    We aren’t very far into the Bible when things go terribly wrong. You know the story.

    Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:1-8 esv

    Now, prior to this, both Adam and Eve walked in the garden in a close personal relationship. They knew the Lord as intimately and personally as it is possible for a person to know Him. They understood His love, compassion and mercy.

    What changed? The obvious answer is they sinned. Yet, what moved them from joy to fear?

    With sin-filled eyes, we cannot see God as He truly is. They now saw God through distorted lenses and created a harsh God of their own imaginings. It’s what we do.

    Some see God as a Monty Python-like foot ready to stomp on us for any sin. Others see Him as a cosmic genie there to grant our every wish and desire. For some people, he’s a doddering old man who either cannot see our sins or, if he does, is unable or unwilling to do anything about them.

    There are those who pretend that He doesn’t exist. The great civilizations of the past imagined Him as a pantheon of very flawed human-like capricious gods.

    The truth is that the God revealed to us in the Bible is none of those things. He is benevolent, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. He loves us so much that Jesus came and died so that we could be restored into a right relationship with Him and be adopted into His family.

    He is too beautiful and wonderful for us to understand with our sin-filled minds. Even as believers whose sins have been atoned for do not yet see him clearly, but the day will come when we will. He will open our spiritual eyes to see the truth.

    For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:32

    I can hardly wait. What about you?

    Be blessed

    Kevin

    Gleanings From The Word – Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life. 

    On a similar theme