On a recent camping trip, I practiced paying attention to nature in all the little pieces and large wonders. There were bald eagles fishing, ospreys, chipmunks and bugs, (oh, the bugs!) and beautiful, brightly colored birds. The night sky was amazing and prompted a sense of awe and wonder. The sun building its scope of exposure on the nearby mountain side was inspiring.
The night we took time to really look at the stars was one of those moments I felt really small. I realized that there was a little anxiety or fear that came with the smallness. But, while I sat there gazing and as more and more stars became visible to my eye, I heard a whisper, “It’s okay to be small.”
As I gave space to the smallness, my sense of wonder grew and magnified and I wanted to break out singing praise and applaud the beauty and splendor. When my mouth opened, all I could say was a long, slow, whispery “wow.” No words could express the wonder or describe the splendor. No camera could capture the immensity of it all and the depth to which all the created wonder spread. (I tried pictures and nothing turned out as good as the real thing.)
All I could do was sit in my smallness and wonder at the largeness of our Creator God.
Now, I want to do that more and more. I long to sit and feel small. The awe and wonder of it feeds my soul and inspires a response of a life wrapped and fueled by divine creativity. May each person find their place of being small and discover the almighty in the depths of wonder.
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
-Psalm 8
