Awe

WELCOME TO SATURDAY STORIES. I’M SHARING A FEW STORIES FROM OUR LAST VACATION. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THEM.

Between Marquette and Grand Marais, Michigan, along the shores of Lake Superior, there are several stretches where homes have been built along the shore with decks out back made from ipe, pine, or redwood. And on those decks they have stationed patio furniture, the kind of folks who say things like, “I never get tired of the view,” sit on and gaze in solemn wonder out across the lakes blue waters. One also finds roadside stops out here where the traveler can pull in and also sit on a bench or stand against a split wood railing and join in the awe.

I suspect we are drawn to these places, whether it is the Great Lakes or the Grand Tetons, because we instinctively want to be awed by something bigger than ourselves. We are small creatures. We know that, even if we don’t want to admit it. It is not an unhealthy thing to realize and confess this. We should ask with the Psalmist, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” It is good to be humbled by something greater and more permanent than we are.

That is countercultural, for sure. But I think this yearning reaches back to our Edenic beginnings, when man walked with God in the Garden and was filled with the fear of the Lord. What we feel, that sense of awe and wonder, when we look at these wonders of creation isn’t wrong. But it should remind us of the One who is the Greatest, the Biggest, the Grandest, of all.

It is fine to sit and gaze out upon a body of waters or at a mountain and be inspired and be in awe. But how much more should we sit before the One who is worthy of all praise, Jesus Christ.