Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall laud Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works, I will meditate.
-Psalm 145:3-5
A dear friend once remarked how strange it is that we so often move about under clouds without ever looking up to see, much less admire, their grace and majesty. That resonated with me at the time; it still does. Perhaps even more so now, having just returned from a vacation with Kathy when, free from routine, I noticed the day-to-day wonders of Nature, most of which I tend to ignore while moving from point A to point B.
On the streets of an ocean harbor town, for instance, I stood mesmerized by the sight of large snow-white gulls as they stayed afloat and still in the deep blue sky. They would hover effortlessly one minute, and dive away at wind speed the next. Later, in a garden dense with Spring blooming and new growth, I found myself inching along and oblivious to time. As I bent in for closer and closer looks, I’m sure I drew curious stares; but the arrayed colors of the flowers, so radiant and fresh in the sunlight, made each one seem an emissary from a more perfect world.
I reflect now on these (and other) moments of wonder on my trip as nothing less than prayer. The kind of prayer that needs no words but arises confidently and quietly from the center of things, simply because I took the time to notice what God’s Creation so regularly and freely offers. I stopped long enough for the grace of thankfulness to catch up with me. I looked up at the clouds, as my friend suggested.
Today’s Psalm goes further, beyond gratitude for the gift to praise for the Giver. Praising not only that which is close at hand, but also that which conveys the “unsearchable” might and majesty of God’s works. I imagine the Psalmist gazing up at night, awed by the star-clustered firmament, that immense splendor that towers over, yet somehow enfolds, all earthly miracles below. And I reflect on how such reverential praise, so urgent as to be passed from one generation of faithful to the next, dates from long before science truly “upped the ante.” Because we now have space telescopes that allow us to count about 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Two hundred billion! And in our one galaxy alone, the Milky Way, we now can see no less than 300 million planets orbiting sun-stars in close enough proximity for the presence of liquid water, a prerequisite to life as we know it.
Praise God from whom such vast Creation flows!
It’s a vastness to both inspire and humble me. In the end, who am I physically but a tiny part of Creation’s immeasurable expanse? No more than a speck really, infinitesimal among billions of galaxies.. And yet…and yet…I’m not lost but found. I have faith’s promise that I am unique and beloved in God’s wondrous design. A speck on one hand, divinely sparked on the other. As the Scripture says, we each have been called by name, even while knit in the womb of Creation (Isaiah 49:1). First marked as His own, we are each walked by the Creator’s hand out into this amazing world, this awesome universe.
There's no denying the fact that I’ve mostly busied myself in the Garden, even as its daily wonders inspire from age to age rightful prayers of gratefulness and joyous songs of praise. This pattern of being too preoccupied to meditate upon the wonders of Creation likely won't change overnight. But this I know: To simply pause long enough to celebrate God's creation with prayerful thanks, is to be spiritually renewed. There are clouds, birds, flowers and starry nights waiting, like sacraments in their promise of grace.
What a Wonderful World - John Batiste
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