DEVOTION

As a child, my eyes always were fixed on the treetops.

As the leaves began to turn and the rolling hills of Kentucky transformed into mountains, the leaves surrounded me and presented every color of warmth. I could never comprehend that anything more majestic would ever be discerned.

I now have children of my own, and I find myself settled in the plains of Oklahoma. Today, my eyes lift higher than the treetops, as if I had been held back all of those years ago. My sight rises to the great expanse above as the sky exudes every variation of red with the rising of the sun. Each day is a new artistic expression which screams with wonder, only for the stars to erase the priceless work each night and a blank canvas is seemingly created for the next morning.

The trees and the sky, products of creation, obeyed their creator, and he looked at his work and said, “It is good.”

A child could think of nothing greater than the beauty of leaves turning directly in view, and a grown man can comprehend nothing more magnificent than the colors created with the rising and setting of the sun.

But God.

He desired something greater. Something far more remarkable. Something only a little lower than the heavenly beings, a prized possession to crown with glory and honor with dominion over the work of his hands.

It is me.

It is you.

For when he finished creating us, male and female, God saw everything that he had made, and behold, then he said, “It is very good.”

I wonder if God delighted in his work when each dramatic color of the turning leaves took my breath away, or if he is pleased with my daily bewilderment when so many shades of red stretch across the horizon.

We don’t question why each leaf has a different pigment, or why different tones traverse the sky. We simply step back and enjoy the art of our creator. As we should.

For indeed, it is good.

But the masterpiece is not in the leaves or in the sky; it exists in every one of us. From each corner of the globe, in every color, hidden before us, with greater splendor in our physical and spiritual expression than the earth itself can produce. For you are the one thing created in his image.

Not even the stars themselves can make such an audacious claim.

Rest not your gaze on only the trees. Dare to see through the sky. Do not be limited by the filter imposed by fallen man, for what you will find has been all along.

It is his masterpiece.

And it is very good.

PRAYER

Father,

We cry out to you knowing we are products of a fallen world. Everything we see, feel, and think has been skewed by our sin. Your thoughts are not our thoughts, and your ways are not our ways.

Yet, you love us. May you give us eyes to see. May you soften our hearts to feel. May you open our minds to understand. We desire to see this world through your eyes. We desire to love the way you love and to respond in thankfulness to the glory of your creation.

We do not have the power to do this ourselves; we boldly ask you to provide what is required to see this world and all of your children through your perfect and righteous eyes. And as you give us this gift, may we then have the courage to use it for your purposes in our communities.

Blake Bastin

Director of Finance and Administration

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