Last week, I had the privilege of spending some vacation time in Central Oregon with my family. Although it’s less than 200 miles from home, the slower pace of life and the rugged beauty of the high desert always seems to create the perfect environment for lowering my blood pressure and dialing in my heart to hear God.
During the week, we visited an observatory with a bunch of high-powered telescopes that provided amazing views of the moon and other elements in our solar system. As my kids and I talked about we saw in the scopes, we had the “expected" responses about God’s power and how small we feel in comparison. Psalms 8:3-4 is just one of the verses that perfectly describes how we felt:
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
Toward the end of our conversation, my son asked a question that really stopped me … He wanted to know why God created planets, stars, and galaxies that are so far away that we will never be able to reach them. I really had no concrete answer for him. Scientists continue to improve technology, and despite powerful telescopes, we will never see the outer reaches of the Universe. The only response I had for my son was that God wanted to create the Universe the way He did, and He is the only one who will ever be able to enjoy some parts of it.
Photo Credit: Oregon Observatory at Sunriver
In those remote parts of the galaxies, there is no sound we can perceive or disturbances created by humans. The celestial objects are likely in similar condition to the way they were when God created them (except for exploding supernovas and a bunch of other cool looking stuff that is WAY above my knowledge of astronomy). God watches over these things just as He does our planet, and although people will never visit these places, they bring glory to God just the same.
I pondered this thought the following morning in my quiet time with the Lord, and my personal time of worship was profoundly impacted. It’s why I put the word “loud” in quotes in the title of this post. My time of worship consisted of no sound at all. No music. No singing. Not even any speaking or whispering. And it was a rich time of fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
As a musician and worship pastor, I marinate in music much of my life. I listen to new music, brainstorm ideas for how we can provide meaningful worship experiences at church, rehearse music for services, and practice instrumental or vocal parts. It is natural (and sometimes almost automatic) to consider music as my primary means of expressing worship to God. It was so good to rediscover the beauty of worship in silence, and focusing on God’s creation in the heavens helped me remember that. Even the most creative man-made music or art cannot begin to approach the creativity God has demonstrated, and we haven’t even seen all that He has made. Sometimes, we just need to stop and be quiet. And worship God.
Psalm 46:10
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
Psalm 57:10-11
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth.
Thankful to be a worshiper with you,
Brent
No comments:
Post a Comment