A Tree, A Genie, & Me

How many of us stop to look at the scenery as we drive to work everyday? We probably did the first day, maybe through the first week, but we gave up after that. I guess you could blame it on ADHD, or just lack of ability to focus on one thing, but I look at the same things every day on the way to work. The same tree... on the same corner... every day. That sounds very boring, right? And I have to admit, perhaps it is.

BUT

I noticed something today... maybe noticed isn't the right word. I realized something today that I had missed all along. The same tree, on the same corner, of my same drive to work... doesn't always look the same! As the seasons change, it changes color, the sun is in a different place in the sky, so the highlights and shadows are different... It was amazing. In that moment I realized that vast amount of beauty and detail that the Creator has put into His creation. A seemingly infinite amount of variance, without a single bit of monotony.

All I could do was begin to worship in my car...

Not because of some emotional, "how beautiful is that tree" feeling, but an overwhelming, inescapable understanding that the Almighty God of the Universe, that took the time to hand craft every living thing on this planet, that sculpted the mountains, valleys, lakes, and oceans, that gave the birds their wings, the fish their scales, and the lion it's roar, loves me, leads me, and lives in me.

I know that sounds simple and almost a little bit corny, but really.

I thought of a scene from the Disney movie Aladdin. Genie is talking about his life as a genie to Aladdin and he described it this way, "PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER, itty-bitty living space," and in that moment of seeing that tree that I look at every day, and hearing the voice of Robin Williams in my head, I realized that's exactly what God Almighty has done for me.

God reached down from his throne in heaven, molded me by hand, set me in place, and then by nothing that I had done, chose to limit Himself in the body of a man, to then be executed, rise from the grave, and as a final act of compassionate love, indwelt His Spirit in my mortal, sinful, corruptible body.

How can we not worship Him after all of that?

- Just a thought