May 16, 2019
For full passage click: Psalm 148:7-14 …“Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds! Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth!” vss. 7, 9, 10, 11
The psalmist hadn’t likely studied theology or anthropology, but he did have a strong conviction that all things had been brought into existence by the word of the Lord and therefore had a natural inclination to offer praise to their Creator. Put in more contemporary terms, we can say that the DNA of God has been poured into creation, and even more precisely, that the creation is the first incarnation of God. Some of us have only heard the word “incarnation” used in connection with Jesus, that in him the divine became human. While certainly that is true and important to us as followers of Jesus, it’s also exciting to think of the universe itself as revealing the stamp of God’s presence. Certainly such an understanding adds to the appreciation of our natural and social environment. The “stuff” of our daily lives, every bit of it, carries with it the essence of God. Every marigold, poppy, eucalyptus, labrador, javelina, pigeon, pelican, and irritating neighbor is of God and in God! On our daily walks and drives, when we expand our sense of the ‘Other’ to include all that is around us, our perceptions, behaviors, and attitudes will change. God moves from “out there” to “right here” and we are blessed!
Thought for the Day: If all things come from God, where does evil come from?
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