Close Encounters … of a God Kind
“The whole earth is filled with his glory.”
God has a way of orchestrating conspicuous encounters.
I am not thinking of those people interactions, the friend we “just happen” to meet in the parking lot. You know, the one who pauses to check in, listen, and before parting, lays a hand on our shoulder, offers a prayer to God, and then blesses us with a hug before departing.
Oh, those are grand and glorious! But I’m not thinking about those encounters at the moment. No, at the moment (3:57 a.m.) my thoughts run to the way God weaves his Word with the events of my life; and for me that’s often my reading life with the reading of God’s Word. Let me explain:
This early morning, I am reading Isaiah 6. Isaiah is giving us a picture of messianic glory:
1 It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. 2 Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 They were calling out to each other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
The whole earth is filled with his glory!”
One commentator notes that glory is a technical term for God’s manifest presence with his covenant people. It was seen in the cloud in the wilderness, then moved in to fill the tabernacle, then the temple, and will one day fill the earth.
No sooner did I read that sentence, “The whole earth is filled with his glory,” then my mind ran back to last Friday.
This past Friday, I did what I have done for the better part of the last three years. I opened the pages of Augustine’s City of God. A friend and I have been slowly — ever so slowly — making our way through all 912 pages at the pedestrian pace of five chapters a week. We compare notes via text. Thus far, my notes run to 97 pages. Yeah, kinda crazy!
Anyway, in Book 22, Chapter 24, Augustine is waxing eloquent regarding the blessings with which God has filled this life, despite the curse of sin. In my notes I write, “this is a ‘RE-READ CHAPTER.’” Wow, is it good.
Augustine is a keen observer. And he wants us to see, then to think long and hard about how good God is. Augustine is taking us from black and white to Technicolor. Read slowly.
How can I tell of the rest of creation, with all its beauty and utility, which the divine goodness has given to man to please his eye and serve his purposes, condemned though he is, and hurled into these labors and miseries?
Shall I speak of the manifold and various loveliness of sky, and earth, and sea; of the plentiful supply and wonderful qualities of the light; of sun, moon, and stars; of the shade of trees; of the colors and perfume of flowers; of the multitude of birds, all differing in plumage and in song; of the variety of animals, of which the smallest in size are often the most wonderful,--the works of ants and bees astonishing us more than the huge bodies of whales?
Shall I speak of the sea, which itself is so grand a spectacle, when it arrays itself as it were in vestures of various colors, now running through every shade of green, and again becoming purple or blue? Is it not delightful to look at it in storm, and experience the soothing complacency which it inspires, by suggesting that we ourselves are not tossed and shipwrecked?
What shall I say of the numberless kinds of food to alleviate hunger, and the variety of seasonings to stimulate appetite which are scattered everywhere by nature, and for which we are not indebted to the art of cookery? How many natural appliances are there for preserving and restoring health! How grateful is the alternation of day and night! how pleasant the breezes that cool the air! how abundant the supply of clothing furnished us by trees and animals!
Who can enumerate all the blessings we enjoy? If I were to attempt to detail and unfold only these few which I have indicated in the mass, such an enumeration would fill a volume. And all these are but the solace of the wretched and condemned, not the rewards of the blessed. What then shall these rewards be, if such be the blessings of a condemned state?
At times my senses are dulled by the constant motion of life. Living in a world filled with God’s splendor, my gaze stops at my “To Do” list. I trade Technicolor for black and white. Even in monochrome, as Ansel Adams so brilliantly demonstrates, God’s aesthetic is dazzling, but should I linger there when my eyes are designed to see ten million colors? Thanks be to God, he gives us more than black and white.
Habakkuk tells us, it that day, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea". That’s THAT DAY, but today the whole earth is still filled with the glory of the Lord. As the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning so eloquently reminds us:
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”
May God give you — and me — eyes to see!
Notes:
“Glory is a technical term” from (ESV Study Bible, note on “Holy, holy, holy.”)
“How can I tell of the rest of creation . . .” from St. Augustine of Hippo. St. Augustine of Hippo: The City of God. Kindle Edition.
