AWESOME!

I have been told that I am easily impressed, but I like to think that I have maintained the wonder of a child.  Our culture throws around the word “awesome” to the point that it has lost its meaning, but there are times that I am truly awed.

I am awed when musicians sit down at their instrument and play as without thought.  When my wife sits at the piano and plays a tune that she has just heard on the radio I am awed, or when my son takes out his guitar and composes a melody that has been rolling around in his head, I am amazed.

I am awed when an artist looks at a blank canvas and sees splashes of color, landscapes and faces, and brings them to life.  There are people who have a sense of color that astound me.  They can look at a room and imagine what colors can go on the wall and match the furniture and accessories, and when it is all put together you step back and go, “Wow!”

I am awed at the craftsman who picks up his hammer and saw and constructs a building whose corners are straight and its foundations solid.  I have helped men who have the ability to size up a piece of wood and know exactly how much to cut and how to put it together with little thought.  The same is true for mechanics who can listen to an engine and tell you what is wrong, and then take it apart and put it back together with the skill of a surgeon.  

I am awed at the teacher who can take difficult concepts and make them easy for students to understand.  They make learning fun because they make it intelligible.  Classroom discipline is negligible because they have engaged their students in the process of learning.

I stand in awe of these people, and many more, because they posses gifts that I cannot master.  I am not envious of them, not in the least.  I am awed by their abilities and enjoy watching them at work, and I am most inspired when they graciously attribute their gifts to God. It motivates me to find my gift and perfect it to the best of my ability. 

But what causes me to stand in awe the most is to know that these things are mere reflections of the character of God.  His power is seen in the coming storm, his artistry in a family of birds, and his skill that fashions a baby in its mother’s womb.  There is no one like Him on the earth or in the heavens, and when I look at the works of His hands my mouth drops and I stand in awe!

Job 25:2 “Dominion and awe belong to Him who establishes peace in His heights.” 

Job says what awed him the most was not the storm, not the power of God, but the quiet voice of Him who brings peace.  Of all that God has done what awes me most is his act of mercy through Jesus, which brings us peace.  In the little things and the big things I see the transcendent God of creation perfecting us through the indwelling Spirit, recreating in us in the image of His Son until the day of His return.  Now that is AWESOME!  I’m just saying…