When I in awesome wonder

When I in awesome wonder

The mountain rises majestically outside my office window.  Lush, green, watered by an over-indulgent monsoon.   I’m struck by its beauty, its undulating slopes, its green vegetation and the blue skies above—picturesque, just right for a postcard.  HE spoke and the world came into existence.  Just a few words—“Let there be…” and things were!

But as I gazed upon this mountain, I thought, you know, when God speaks it’s no ordinary word, it’s a word loaded with big-picture broad strokes right down to tiny, intricate lines that capture the smallest detail.  A few words, a mere thought, and the height of the mountain falls into place, the slopes and the angles that define them; not smooth and boring but rising and falling, mountains within mountains, hills if you may, covered with vegetation—plants, or should it be shrubs, or both; flowers, tiny brushes, rivulets running through them, and then, oh, insects, inside and out, running or flying up and down the sides of this jutting piece of terra firma.  Wow! All encapsulated in a Word, a divine thought,  a celestial idea.  

Can you wrap your minds around that, my friends?  And that’s just one mountain!  Look around, I thought, and I did—mountains, birds, animals, flowers you, me….  And all He did was speak: “And the Lord said: ‘Let there be…’” and there was!  Isn’t that awesome?  Doesn’t it fill you with awe?  With wonder, respect and amazement, all rolled into one?  No wonder the songwriter could say:

“O Lord, my God! when I in awesome wonder, 
consider all the works Thy hand hath made.  
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, 
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.”

And now, I’m singing with him:

“Then sings my soul my Saviour God to Thee, 
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!  
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee, 
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!”

Oh, how great, how awesome, how magnificent, how worthy of every praise is our Lord God Almighty.  Amen, beloved?

In awe,
Rev. Cecil Clements