There are days that depth of spirituality looms massively. There are other days that there is just a steady stream of awareness that God is good and present in day-to-day living. As the country song reminds us, “some days a diamond, some days a stone.”
Diamonds and stones both have value, it just depends on where you find them and what you do with them. A Christian faith is like that as well. It is stony times that build foundations for us. Try building anything with a diamond but try carrying a foundation stone on your finger. Neither works.
The English hymn writer saw the beautiful countryside around him and wrote: “For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies. Christ, our Lord, to you we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.” (Folliott Sandford Pierpoint, 1864) Though it is a lovely hymn and from a reasonably pretty place, I am sure it can’t hold a candle to the Angus glens or our Swan Valley, both are beyond what an English countryside can offer.
I miss the beauty of the Scottish Grampians and all that surrounded me for so many years, but now I have found a new beauty here in the Swan Valley and the Rocky Mountains that run to the Canadian border and beyond. There is this lovely place called Glacier National Park that I had a day away with my lovely bride of 41 years that coincided with the day of our first meeting 48 years ago, an early anniversary celebration as we looked at the beautiful mountains of the Northern Rockies. The words of the old hymn stand out even more in this beautiful place.
The psalmist puts it this way: “In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.” (Psalm 95:4–5)
As we drove the Going to the Sun Road up and over Logan Pass and saw the beauty, it reminded me that our world is filled with wonder. The simple spiritual presence was real. It was more impressive as I considered the God who created it all. For me, it was both depth and stream of the spiritual presence of God. Do we see the beauty of God in our world? Do we know that presence of God or do we miss it?
Too many times we are focused on the creation around us and miss out on the Creator Himself. Too many times we know about Jesus and not know Him and His saving grace. My prayer for you today is that you encounter the beauty of God in a day-to-day life. I pray that people find as well a personal relationship with the God that made this beautiful place.
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