Creating God, your fingers trace the bold design of farthest space;
Let sun and moon and stars and light and what lies hidden praise your might.
Sustaining God, your hands uphold Earth’s myst’ries known or yet untold;
Let waters fragile blend with air, enabling life, proclaim your care.
Redeeming God, your arms embrace all now despised for creed or race;
Let peace, descending like a dove, make known on earth your healing love.
Indwelling God, your gospel claims one family with a billion names;
Let ev’ry life be touched by grace until we praise you face to face.
~Jeffrey Rowthorn
Every now and then, I believe, we need a reminder about the magnitude of which we are a part. A couple of Sundays ago, we sang this song set to a beautiful tune by local composer David Haas. The music is haunting and sticks with you. But as our gathered community lifted their voices, it was the words that got stuck in me. As we were singing, I glanced around at people’s faces and recognized that many were having similar feelings to my own. When we were finished I said my usual lead in line to our time of announcements: “There are many ways to be involved in the life and work of this community this week.” But instead of going on to all the many wonderful classes and opportunities, I invited people to take this hymn home and put on their fridge or in a place where they would see the words often during the coming week. On the following Monday morning, I posted it on my office door so I could read it as I come and go and those who came to my door might also be drawn into its power as they knocked or waited.
It is so easy for me, and I don’t think I am alone in this, to get bogged down in the mundane details of any day and to forget that I am a part of an ancient and unfolding story. This story of the Universe, this telling of God’s movement in the world, is one in which we each play a very small part…..but an important one. Our work is to be awake enough to remember that we are important to its unfolding.
Last night as I stood bathed in the blue light of the full moon, I felt how small I was in comparison to ‘the bold design of farthest space’. But I also understand my work as a human to be one who speaks praise, awe, amazement, to point out the beauty and wonder by which we are surrounded. I had already pointed the moon out to my husband and his sister. And earlier I had done a similar thing with some colleagues as we left an evening meeting. Finally, I sent a text message to our son in Seattle.”Have you seen the moon tonight?” As I made my way to bed, I took a final glance out the window and noticed how the world which had been so white all day was now a brilliant blue. It seemed a moment of pure gift.
These moments when we allow ourselves to be bathed in the mystery of what it means to be alive in our time, in this world, are ones in which we can know in a deep way what it means to be connected to all other humans everywhere. Awe is an experience that is not bound by creed or race, education or economics or status. It is quite simply something that brings a certain peace that is difficult to find words to express. And so I trust that in city or village, on many continents around our world, people are lifting their eyes toward what amazes them, what shows them the presence of the Holy. They are turning their attention from the little details that can wait. They are having an experience of grace, a fullness of knowing that we are a part of something big, something mysterious, something to be held gently and with reverence…….praising that which some of us call God, face to face.