“The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1).
As a boy, my family often traversed the Great Plains en route to the mountains “out west.” Compared to our destination, the middle of South Dakota or Nebraska left me unimpressed–so open, so plain (no pun intended), so boring. My attitude then was give me snow-caps over corn-fields and open grasslands.
Later, as a college-student at North Dakota State University, I began to appreciate the wide plain. Perhaps a good share of that appreciation came through two months I spent in Newport Beach, California, doing evangelism amid the crowded, overly-expensive dwellings of Balboa and Corona del Mar. Near the end of my stint, I spent a day on a beach-bike flying down the PCH in search of open country, and finding it in Irving State Park. At last, space! Open space! It was so refreshing, though the diamond snake across my path reminded me I was not at home.
Two years ago, as a father of six, I led my family across South Dakota to join my parents and siblings in the Colorado Rockies for an anniversary reunion. Now mind you, I still enjoy the Rockies greatly (and they still scare me at times), but one of the surprises of the trip was how I enjoyed other aspects of the West–not just the land, though the wide valleys of Wyoming simply awed me, but the Sky. Oh, Lord, how beautiful and majestic is the sky that You have made! In the middle of Dakota, I saw the biggest dome I have perhaps ever seen in my life–so high and wide were the canopy of clouds. Where else can anyone ever go on earth to see something so big? Little wonder Montana is known as “Big Sky Country.”
Interestingly, the more boring the land, the more impressive the sky. Oh, to have less of earth, but more of heaven!
Now, if anyone were to ask me, what is my favorite part of creation, whether earth or sea or sky, I will probably say sky–for the variety of shapes in the clouds and of colors near twilight, for the often imperceptible change in shading from horizon to zenith, for the remarkable blue above to match the blue below, for the towering clouds by day (what work of man can match 80,000 feet!) and the infinite, vaulted dome at night, or, more simply, for the raw power and sheer size that God often exhibits and exerts through this aspect of His creation. Truly, the heavens do declare the glory of God. If we do not listen, nothing can stop the fury! But, ah, if we do listen and fear God, where is the end of our feast of worship? Glory to Your name, O Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father! Amen.
Spring Branch Academy - Jonesville, Michigan 