The longer one looks through that window, the more one experiences the pleasure, and the awesome beauty of God in his creation.
John Piper writes,
God means for us to look at his creation and say: If the mere work of his fingers is so full of wisdom and power and grandeur and majesty and beauty, what must this God be like in himself?!
These are but the backside of his glory, as it were, darkly seen through a glass. What will it be to see the Creator himself! Not his works! A billion galaxies will not satisfy the human soul. God and God alone is the soul’s end. (The Pleasures of God, 94)
The white trim around our window frames one big and beautiful cry: What must God be like!
If the sky can be this blue, and trees can grow this tall, and tiny birds can display this much color, how big and powerful and creative and satisfying must God be!
Piper continues, “The message of creation is this: there is a great God of glory and power and generosity behind all this awesome universe; you belong to him; he is patient with you in sustaining your rebellious life; turn and bank your hope on him and delight yourself in him, not his handiwork.”
How desperately we need to hear that message in the midst of the stresses and challenges of everyday life. And yet we do not hear it if we do not slow down and look. Where do you see or hear or smell or taste or feel creation hinting at the glory of God?
And where, in our dark hours shall we look for majesty, or glory, or even a glimmer of hope?
“Do not be anxious about your life” (Matthew 6:25) teaches us.
Consider the Lilies of the field.
Trust God so that you too will get along well enough.
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:28–30)
“I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.” Know that I will take care of you.
“In the end it will not be the seas or the mountains or the canyons or the water spiders or the clouds or the great galaxies that fill our hearts to breaking with wonder and fill our mouths with eternal praise. It will be God himself.” (Pleasures of God, 94)
All that happens, good or bad, happy or sad, is like a window to God himself, another corner of creation shouting that only he will satisfy. His help for you is another clear echo of Jesus’s voice, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
If anxiety threatens to stifle your joy in God or undermine your confidence in him, lift your eyes up from your problems and look closer at all that he has made. Look up to Him instead of down to fallible men.
You need nothing to find the window. It’s already in you. Look through it to see The Universe and God.
From notes from a piece by Marshall Segal; writer and managing editor at desiringGod.org
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