✛ Ps. 76:4
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What soul can gaze upon majestic mountains and not be moved? Believers look at such sights, and are reminded of the One who created them. It's hard, however, to remember that the Unseen is more majestic and glorious than the thing we're seeing. An English patriotic hymn, originally called The Two Fatherlands, helps me with this, however. The first stanza is a vow to give all for love of country. But then the second stanza puts love of nation into perspective:
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And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,
most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
and soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
and her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.
most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
and soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
and her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.
✛ Cecil Spring Rice
Like a Muslim or a follower of an ascetic eastern religion, orthodox Protestants are called upon to relate to God without the aid of statues or pictures. The Word is all we have. Though mountains or oceans or canyons remind us of God's glory, we may not depend on such sights to show us God, for the created cannot show us the Creator anymore than looking at the Mona Lisa can show us what da Vinci looked like.
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Thank you for reminders of your glory, God, and thank you for forgiving me when my limited intellect depends over much on visible manifestations of you. Grant me the patience and insight to see you as you would have me see you: In the glory of your Word and in service to my neighbor. For this, your will, was fleshed out in Jesus Christ my Sovereign, who taught me to pray: Our Father...
