September 1 I Tuesday

Psalms 135-136

1 Corinthians 12

“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?”   —Psalm 8:3-4

    When an artist paints a picture, he does two things. Firstly, his painting normally copies something that we recognize as intelligible. For instance, if we look at a painting by the cubist painter Pablo Picasso, we may notice diverse shapes coming together from different angles to form an image of a person. Secondly, an artist expresses himself in a way that tells us something about his perspective in the world. We may look at Picasso’s painting and conclude that he had a rather unusual view of life.

      When God, as the great Artist, created the world. He only did one of the above two things. He did not copy anything, for there was nothing to copy. All God did was express Himself. What is God’s perspective of the world? We come to understand God through the beauty of His creation, as Psalm 19:1 says,“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” Some may see the world as a phenomenon and not as a handiwork of the God that we know. Yet, every time we look at creation, we should be captivated by its beauty and be in awe, as God spoke all things into being.

      As we look around in creation, we realize that God is big. He created an expansive universe with all its stars, planets, suns and moons in just one day, as Psalm 33:6 tells us, “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth.” But we also notice how God is interested in the details; even with a tiny spider, we can see how intricate this little life is. Psalm 100:3 says, “Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.” When we see that God is so big, we do not need to be frightened because we know He cares about us. And when we know that God sees all the details, we do not need to be frightened in this lonely world.

      There is an old hymn that goes: Heaven above is softer blue, Earth around is sweeter green; Something lives in every hue, Christless eyes have never seen: Birds with gladder songs o’erflow, Flow’rs with deeper beauties shine, Since I know, as now I know, I am His, and He is mine.

      May our eyes be opened to see the world as God, the Great Artist, expresses Himself in the vastness and in the details.

Prayer: Dear Almighty God, thank You for revealing Yourself to us through the beauty of Your creation. I am grateful that You are a God who sees all the small details and still care for me. Amen!