No doubt you’ve encountered sights in nature that stopped you in your tracks and took your breath away: a snow-covered peak that touched the clouds, or a meteor shower that electrified the night sky before your eyes. How about a massive tornado on the horizon?
In the face of such natural wonders, we often feel overwhelmed and small—even fearful.
Transcendent moments like these can be wonderful and terrible at once. They can fill us with delight or dread. But as awesome as these created things are, they pale next to the Creator who made them. If they are glorious, He is infinitely more so.
The Hebrew word translated “glory” is kavod. It means heavy or weighty. That’s what nature’s glory is. Those beautiful scenes weigh on your mind, and they press in on your heart.
In a real way, as the unforgettable handiwork of a great artist, they point us back to the source of all glory.
Moses boldly said to God, “Show me your glory.” God replied, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” God’s pure, full, unfiltered essence was too powerful, His face too wonderful to behold.
And yet, God allowed Moses to see His back—just a quick, tantalizing taste of the glory that He possesses (Exodus 33:18–23).
Fast-forward to the New Testament. In his gospel, the apostle John declared that Jesus, the Word, “made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Later in the book of Revelation—John’s eye-opening glimpse of the end of history, his spine-tingling peek into forever—he wrote of the hope of all believers: “They will see his face” (Revelation 22:4).
We were made by the God of glory for a glorious life and a glorious future. We were made for glory.
Today your challenge is simple: Marvel at God’s Word. Wonder at His world. Then fall to your knees and worship the God of glory.
What image from nature or a place in creation helps you best catch a glimpse of the glory of God?
