Listen

Because the Lord is great and so worthy of praise. He is awesome beyond all other gods because all the gods of the nations are just idols, but it is the Lord who created heaven! Greatness and grandeur are in front of him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Psalm 96:4-6

Think

Awesome is a word we throw around a lot in our culture. We use it as much to describe a fun vacation as we do a tasty breakfast taco. The dictionary defines awesome as “extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear.” So maybe it’s more appropriate to to think of a powerful thunderstorm or the Grand Canyon as “awesome.” These things leave us breathless and often without words to describe their power and beauty.

The thing is that God created the thunderstorm, and the Grand Canyon. And this psalm reminds us that God also created heaven! Not only the beauty we see in our natural world, but the glory of the heavenly realm, which we can’t see. Can you begin to fathom how awesome is the God who created these things? Me neither. And that’s ok. We’re supposed to be left speechless and lost in wonder as we contemplate our God, whose sanctuary is filled with strength and beauty. That’s awesome!

Chad Senuta

Pray

God, your strength and beauty leave me speechless. So help me to remain quiet and simply be lost in wonder. Amen.

Go

Go in safety, for you cannot go where God is not.

Go in love, for love alone endures.

And go in peace, for that is God’s gift to those who are in Christ Jesus.