Greenfield Village, Dearborn |
Last night
Linda and I stepped out of our house to see some of this year’s Perseid meteor
shower. We stood in the darkness of our yard. She leaned into my arms and I
held her as we looked at the perfectly clear starry sky. I have never gotten
over the feeling of wonder and awe and smallness that comes when I look into
the vastness of space. I wanted Linda and I to see just one meteor together. We
waited and waited until it finally came, streaking across the vast black canopy!
Tonight
the Perseid shower happens again. I’m going to get a chair and sit beneath it
for a longer time. The early evening sky is clear as I’m typing this. The
humidity is low, the temperature is warm, and I’ve got a childlike expectancy in
my soul.
My
experience with God is like this. As I meditate on God’s stunning creation I am
given insights into the being of God. In God there is a greatness and a
perfection that dwarfs the cosmos.
This is
about God’s essential attributes, which are omniscience, omnipotence,
omnibenevolence, atemporality[1],
nonphysicality (hence omnipresence), and all of which are ascribed to a
necessarily existing (everlasting; without beginning or end) being.
This God who loves me
and invites me to communicate with him is beyond comparison. When I survey God’s
wondrous analytic predicates my praying life is transfigured. To consider God,
the great Subject of my prayers, is to pray differently.
[1]
An excellent discussion about God’s relationship to time is found in God and
Time: Four Views, by Gregory Ganssle and Paul Helm.