In life there are moments
that can only be described as breathtaking;
they’re impossible to capture by photo or even the most pointed description
because their sheer beauty
or miraculous nature
transcends your surroundings
into the throne room of the Creator.
And I had one of those.
My attempt to delineate it to you is honestly an effort to tighten the strings on it in my own heart so that I don’t lose it. It is becoming an Ebenezer (a Stone of Help) for those times when I make the utterly human mistake of de-glorifying God.
Which I don’t ever plan to do.
But I do.
Because I can get so swept up into the googling and understanding of a significant moment with God, that I concentrate all of Heaven’s efforts into some sort of overstrained soup of a lackluster, “that’s interesting,”
And my God is anything but lackluster. But it’s been awhile since I looked at God in legitimate awe. I say, “God is awesome,” but that word has become trite.
Awe-showing reverence, admiration, or fear.
That definition is appropriate, however, to how I felt when I went to go shoot pictures a few weeks ago.
Like many Saturdays, I woke up, looked outside, then went to my husband with a wide grin and asked if I could go out and “play.” The hope was that his day was not brimmed so full he didn’t have the capacity to watch my eight year old. I got the green flag! And what had me grinning was what I saw when I opened the door… fog.
Fog is fun to photograph, if the conditions are right. Usually it is already kind of gloomy, so you get these real moody shots of the landscape or grumpy looking birds. It’s great. But this time was different.
As I slowly drove my car onto the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive, the sun came over the horizon and revealed a world I have never seen before—at least not at this scale. I pulled my car over and began to walk around, praise erupted from my lips. I could not help but share my glee with the strangers around me. Although they too enjoyed the scenery, they were not in awe. Probably because science explains it. Simple enough.
But to me, it was a moment.
The mysterious mixture of moisture in the air and filtered morning light acknowledged a demonstration of God’s commitment to bring beauty, whimsy and joy where I often feel there is none. This time of year, most foliage on the Wildlife Drive looks dead. There are miles of gray branches, withered leaves and pods of decay. These perfect conditions shone a new light on it all—to God’s glory.
Delicately placed between every single branch and blade of grass was a doily of perfectly woven lace. As the sun stretched across the fields, miles and miles of this beautiful architecture was brought into the light. Millions of water droplets that hung in suspension like stars across the preserve.
I giggled and thought, “God, you decorated last night!”
And then, the awe came. As I set about busily snapping pictures, thinking I was a part of something special, He dropped a nugget of truth in my heart that caused reverence.
He decorates that field every night.
The beauty I was seeing has been there every other time that I have come. The difference was that right circumstances revealed what was there all along.
He has been there all along.
Open the eyes of my heart Lord. I want to see you.
. . . . .
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it
Mount of Thy unchanging love
Here I raise my Ebenezer
Here there by Thy great help I’ve come
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be
Let that grace now, like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above
