Rainbows

“Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God. Do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine? Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge, you whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind? Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a cast metal mirror?” (Job 37:14-18 ESV). Recently, while visiting Aaron in Washington D.C., we toured the Renwick Gallery. In each of the rooms there were modern sculptures created from different materials. One of the pieces was created with clear filament fashioned in sweeping arcs from floor to ceiling rising over twenty feet. They were somehow displayed with a variety of primary colors from lights positioned to make it appear as if it were a rainbow. While it was beautiful, it really couldn’t compare to the real thing. I read the story of a little girl and her grandmother who were snuggled in a chair reading a book. Lightning flashed and the sound of thunder cracked. The girl jumped off her grandma’s lap and ran to look out the window. She shouted, “Grandma, look!” The grandmother hurried over and saw a double rainbow in the sky. Looking up with wide eyes the child asked, “Who made that, Grandma?” With a great sense of awe, the wise woman simply answered, “God did. He’s the greatest artist of all!” Sometimes I envy little children who are still alive to the wonder of discovering colorfully striped skies. Too often I need the wake-up call that Elihu gives Job: “Stop in your tracks! Take in God’s miracle-wonders.” We could take a lesson from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who notes that without wonder there is no worship. If we walk blindly through the wonders of life, we risk becoming blind to the glory of God, and our sense of worship will fade. God makes himself known to us through the slant of sunlight in the trees, through a wave of pink petunias overflowing a clay pot, through the sound of birds serenading each other at dawn. We are reminded of God’s delight in us when we smile at a baby, and the baby smiles back! When we practice living in wonder, we will see God everywhere and our lives will be filled with spontaneous worship and praise. In the next few days my hope is that each of the Morning Devotionals will help you to be open to the blessings of living in wonder. When we do live in that wonder, we will also practice the best form of worship!