All Things Well

Oh Bright Morning Star, as citizens in Your kingdom, we thank You for the great lengths You went to, to make it possible for us to know You.  Adonai, You are incredible.  As Romans 5 says, when we were utterly helpless, You came at just the right time and died for us sinners.  Most of us would not be willing to die in the place of a good person, but El-Elyon, You showed us Your very great love by dying for us while we were still in our sinning state.  And now that we are right in Your sight because You atoned for our crimes against You with Your own blood, we are safe from condemnation. It’s too incredible for us to comprehend.  All we are able to do is bow before You in adoration and awe, fealty and devotion.  We certainly can never repay You in a thousand lifetimes.

Indeed, oh Lion of Judah, You are the only One to whom our highest praise belongs.  You truly are the only One who deserves to be worshiped.  By the power of Your spoken word...all of creation came into being.  No one else comes close to possessing such power.  And it didn't end when You finished creating on the sixth day.  Repeatedly You have demonstrated Your authority over Your invention, when You alter the laws of nature at Your discretion: by stopping the sun when Joshua fought the Amorites, by reversing the shadow on the sundial when King Hezekiah asked for confirmation of Your word to him, by commanding the wind and waves to stop raging instantly, by walking across the top of the lake.  Oh King over all kings, Your supremacy over all of everything is unmatched and unrivaled.  

How could we even begin to think that we might be better off without You?  That well actually? Actually, maybe we don't want You to be our God because we would rather choose what our "best life" is?  The arrogance and audacity of the created to deny and reject their Creator....is sickening and embarrassing. What must such a Supreme Being think of our 'wisdom'?  (Actually, Psalm 2 tells us what You think about the absurdity.)  But the most astounding reality is...that it was Your plan all along.  Contrary to Your created humanity, Your created nature has to obey You. The orbit of the planets, the ocean tides, animals' instincts, giant trees growing from a tiny seed...none of it has a will of its own.  But when You created the human race, You gave us what no other piece of creation has: the option to choose. To obey You... or not.  To love You... or not.  To worship You... or not.  Certainly, the choice does have consequences.  But to worship because we fear the consequences if we don't worship, is not worship at all.  "Worship" offered through coercion, or by pre-programmed robots is not worship at all.  

Oh Adonai, help us to comprehend that it is Your love and goodness that gives us the choice! True worship can only be offered willingly, from a place of gratitude and love for all that You are, and all that You have done.

Gratitude for what?  One trillion words would not be enough to list all the reasons.  A starting place would be to realize that You gave us a life at all, that You sustain that life by keeping our hearts beating, our lungs breathing, and our brains thinking.  And then, the fact that You gave us a staggeringly beautiful planet to live on, to explore, and to learn more and more about Your genius, masterful design in every single square milometer of it. It took us several millennia to find protons, electrons, nuclei, and mitochondria.  It took us several millennia to find stars so enormous that our earth is a tiny pinprick in comparison.    To plumb the depths of Your creative genius will take an eternity.  The distance between single proton to UY Scuti is so expansive, and requires so many numbers, that we don't even have words for them. (We can barely comprehend what one trillion is.)   

And then, there is the creative genius You used to invent living things.  The animal kingdom, and all plant life.  Just the human body itself is a marvel we still don't understand fully.    But to start with two half-cells, put them together and choose which chromosomes You'll use to make a new human.  You design this human with the traits You want the human to have.  You're utterly in charge of every minute detail.  Eye color, skin color, and of course gender, but more than that even.  You determine how this human will carry on traits and mannerisms from the parents, and what traits and characteristics will be unique to this new human.  You then have a blueprint of Your own design and You set right to work.  You begin to knit this new human together.  One cell becomes two cells.  Two cells become four.  And then, wonder of wonders, the cells take up their assignments and gather together to form eyes, ears, a brain, a heart.... all within the mother's own body.  

Oh Hallowed be Your Name!  It's just absolutely genius, absolutely an Intelligent Design in every sense of the word.  How dare we even think that the Supreme Being in charge of every minute detail of everything everywhere could ever, ever make a mistake?!  You do all things well!  You are perfect.  You do everything precisely and exactly as You mean to.  It is with fear (great respect) and trembling (because my teeny brain physically cannot process the depths of You, the width of You, the heights of You)  that I bow low before You, faint with awe.  Faint with awe!  Oh, someday!  Someday we will all know, we will all see, we will all bow, and You will be acknowledged by all of creation as The. King.  The Ultimate King!  The Only King!  You are the One.  It's You, it's You, it's You alone, there is no one else!  Oh Sovereign King.  Almighty King.  El Shaddai,  the only Great I Am, blessed are You.  Blessed are You, King of the Universe, Who does. All. Things. Well.  Hallowed be Your Name!  May. Your. Kingdom. Come!  May Your will be done here, just as it is done there.    Oh forgive us, forgive us!  of our sins, and strengthen us to forgive those who sin against us.  In no way whatsoever do we deserve Your forgiveness, yet You've made Your forgiveness, and love and presence, available to us by paying an incredible price for it.  Yours is the Kingdom.  Yours is the power.  Yours is the glory!  Forever.  and Ever.  Amen.