When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. (Psalm 8:3-8 ESV).
Mary and I were driving to an early morning lab appointment and coming out of the west exit on to the main road we looked across the pasture of one of the ranches and saw the third bloom of what has been called a “super bloom.” We have bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes, and many other wildflowers throughout our area of Texas; however, I’ve never seen as many varieties and continuous blooms as this year. The picture I’ve included here is mainly the wild yuccas that grow throughout the area. The wonder of it is that all of them seem to be blooming at the same time. We have lived in Texas for nearly 70 years and neither of us have ever seen such a beautiful site. It reminded me of our reading today. David is the author of this psalm. He would have had plenty of time while tending the sheep to have seen such sights.
It is always amazing to me to see how intricately God has put together His creation. There are so many unique features depending on the geographical location, season of the year, and time of the day. God’s beauty is truly limitless. That is true with nature and humanity. There is beauty in every person God has created. I think it is tragic we so often fail to recognize that truth.
Our failure often results in behavior that is so unbecoming of the followers of Jesus. It must grieve Him that we have so little appreciation of the handiwork of His creative wonder. Perhaps, like David, we should stop in our busy lives and just see what He has done. We should recognize that if He has taken such care to create flowers, which are here today and gone tomorrow, honestly, how much more does he care for us? After all, we are so much more intricately designed. It ought to call to us to treat everything and everyone with the respect due to created works from His hand.
Nothing He does is coincidental or haphazard. God is purposeful. Treat others as priceless works of art. God is really showing out these days… I wonder if we are closer to seeing Jesus in the eastern sky that we think!