30+ Days of Giving Thanks, Day 45: The Artistry of God

I have been to a lot of places and I have seen a lot of things. However, there are many, many more places I have not yet been, and many, many, many more things I have not yet seen. I know this: the places I have been, and the things I have seen, are spectacular! I have seen the water crashing over Niagara Falls—from both the United States' and the Canadian sides. (The view is better from the Canadian side!) I have seen the coral reefs off Key West in Florida. I have been in the mountains of Bavaria, and in the Shawangunk mountains here in the mid-Hudson River valley. 

Today I was talking with a friend about the complexity of the human body's chemistry—magnificent and delicately balanced, and that is but one of the several systems in the human body that are designed (yes, designed!) to work in harmony with one another. I have held, and recently, a tiny example of the human race, and observed the tiny fingernails, little bigger than a single scale on the side of a sunfish (I almost said trout, but we both know better than that, don't we?) A miniature person, like his daddy in nearly every detail, yet tiny in comparison. (That'll change, of course.)

The beauty of the Green Mountains of Vermont was in my mind several days ago as I drove north up U.S. Route 7 from Bennington toward Rutland. Though the mountains are gray now in the late fall/early winter, I could still imagine the beauty of those mountains just weeks earlier when all of those now naked trees would have been aglow with the yellows, reds and oranges of fall foliage.

There is an admittedly small but nonetheless fascinating waterfall in my neighborhood. After a heavy rain I enjoy standing on the bridge that binds the two banks of the Wallkill River together on Route 52 in Walden and looking 50 yards upstream at that crazy tangle of water raging over the rocks of that cascade. It is hypnotic to me. I have walked along the beaches of Cape Cod, of Atlantic City, of Virginia Beach and Daytona Beach and enjoyed the endless repetition and the limitless variations of the surf washing along the sand and rocks.

I have watched many sunrises, and even more sunsets, and marveled at the palette of colors that God has at His fingertips. I have stood amazed at the power and terrible beauty of a thunder-and-lightning storm, and have watched through the windows at the silent snowfall buries the world beneath a thick carpet of snow.

All of these things, and many more beside, speak to me of the incredible artistry of God, and the beauty which He lavishes on all that He has wrought. Whether it is the steep passes and deep valleys of the Appalachian Mountains through West Virginia, or the mile after mile of flatland in Indiana and Illinois, it is majestic and inspiring. For me, everything that God has made sings of the greatness of our God—and even the music of "How Great Is Our God" and "How Great Thou Art" rolls through by mind and soul as I think about it.

Thank You, O God, for the beauty and majesty of this Creation of Yours. Thank You for making it, and thank You for sharing some of it with me for a little while. Maybe, one day, You can show me around the rest of it—You know—the parts I haven't seen yet. That would be GREAT!

And, oh yeah, God. I don't tell you enough, but I really love You, too.