Glory Revealed
I was pulled to the sunset. I couldn't take my eyes off it.
I remember feeling the same way about five years ago: when I watched the sun set over the north ridge of the Grand Canyon. I've never seen a sun go down so slowly, so beautifully. Every ten seconds, the colors changed, the mood changed, and I drew a deeper breath. And though I was enjoying talking to friends and taking pictures of our feet dangling over thousands of feet of rocky hole, all I could think was, "Lord, how amazing you are. And I bet you do this every night."
I was pulled to the Grand Canyon. I couldn't take my eyes off it.
As I allow my mind to dwell on times like these, the memories flood: the view from the top of Mt. Evans in Colorado, snorkeling in Puerto Rico, watching a mountain goat walk past and give me a dirty look on top of Buffalo Mountain, seeing a whale at the furthest edge of my vision in the Atlantic Ocean, watching a bald eagle through binoculars just a mile from my house.
Enthralling. Mesmerizing. Enchanting.
Not too long ago, I had this thought: Nature is amazing even when it doesn't do anything amazing. I wasn't amazed at the bald eagle juggling; it was just sitting in a tree. Mt. Evans wasn't moving or shaking; it was just being a mountain. But nature has this innate ability to draw us by doing what it was made to do.
My kids love to see a cat kill a mouse. Nothing fancy; it's made to do that. They love to see our squirrel dog bark up a tree at a squirrel. It shouldn't be that exciting; he was made to do that. I love to watch the sun rise. Nothing special; it is made to rise every morning.
What, then, draws us to nature like this? What makes us sit and stare at something that happens over and over? I mean, how many sunsets and mountains and ocean deeps will it take before it gets old?
It will never get old: We are drawn to such as these because they declare the glory of God.
The Hebrew word for glory means "heaviness, weight." There's just something about nature that gives us the tiniest glimpse of the weight of God. It's the earthly manifestation of His power, knowledge, and might. Luckily, God doesn't reveal it all because we can't handle all of it (Exodus 33:17-23). We can't really put His glory into words, but when we get a little glimpse of God's glory in nature, we know it because we feel it in our soul. It's God calling out to us, "This is who I am. Come to me."
Paul explains it like this: "Ever since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities—God’s eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through the things God has made," (Romans 1:20, CEB). There are parts of God we can't see, but we can witness them in what He made.
That's glory.
So when you can't stop watching that spider spin a web, gaze lovingly at a sleeping baby, set up your eno on a day like today just to be outside, please hear the voice of God pleading with you: "Come to me. Witness my glory."
Oh, but nature is not the only place where His glory is revealed:
Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your descendants from the east,
And gather you from the west;
I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’
Bring My sons from afar,
And My daughters from the ends of the earth—
Everyone who is called by My name,
Whom I have created for My glory;
I have formed him, yes, I have made him.
(Isaiah 43:5-7, NKJV)
Oh, did you see that?
If you know God the Father through faith in Christ the Son, you have been called by God alone because He created you FOR HIS GLORY. Just like a breaching whale or a shooting star. (Full credit: those are lyrics from one of Chris Rice's best songs. Here's a link to it sung by Kathy Troccoli.)
You are created for God's glory.
You are created for God's glory.
You are created for God's glory.
Don't feel like it? That doesn't matter. Feelings are from the heart and your heart is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9). The truth is what God says.
And He says He created you for His glory.
"How?" You ask.
One word: BELIEVE.
God told Abraham that he would have a son even though he was decades too old to be having children. In response, ABRAHAM BELIEVED HIM. God's promise went against every law on earth and I'm sure every single person would have told him he was crazy. But "He (Abraham) did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform," (Romans 4:20-21, NKJV).
Abraham believed that God was who He said He was and that He could do what He said He could do. (If you don't shout "hallelujah" at that, you need to do the Bible Study Believing God by Beth Moore. Today.)
Abraham gave God glory when he believed God's Word.
And not just a mental, "I believe the Bible is true" statement; I'm talking about a real, living, every-day-is-different-because-of-God kind of faith. Believing God means you do what He says because you know He loves you. It means you live in freedom because He told you you were free. It means you forgive because you are forgiven.
THIS IS GLORY: Revealing God by doing the thing we were created to do.
You were called by God for His glory. And you glorify Him when you believe Him.
This is profoundly simple insight, but it's difficult to actually live. And when you feel anger or fear or heartbreak or sorrow, you choose to believe God's Word because that's what glorifies Him. It's no glory to feel hopeless in the face of death, depression over a lost relationship, or anger over a harsh word. But we glorify God Himself--we reveal His glory, His heaviness, His weight--when we believe what His Word says in the midst of every situation.
And people who know us and watch us and hear us and call us friends are drawn to us.
Pulled to us.
Can't take our eyes off us.
Because we glorify God.
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