Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights above.
Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.
Psalm 148: 1-4, NIV
Every evening, just before I head upstairs to bed, I take my dogs out for one last ‘rest stop’ in our back yard. Our home is on the edge of town, and our back deck faces the mountains to the west. Once the sun has fully set, there is little light pollution to interrupt my stargazing. As the pups run around and do what pups do, I find myself staring up at the deep black sky that surrounds us. I can only imagine the breadth and width and wonder of a God so big and so awesome as to have created it all. And how creative God is! Each tiny polka-dot of wonder above me glows in a slightly different hue, reflecting the Creator in the light it shines forth throughout the heavens and the heights and the waters above the skies…
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for at his command they were created,
and he established them for ever and ever—
he issued a decree that will never pass away.
Psalm 148: 5-6, NIV
Amazing. Purely amazing.
The dogs finish their business and I follow them back into the house, up to their beds where my wife and I tuck them in each night with a prayer and special blessing. We offer up our thanks for their companionship, their unique and wonderful existence which brings so much joy to our own. These smelly, shedding beasts, the descendants of wolves who would have been banished from our campfires ten-thousand years ago; these furry dependents rely on my wife and me to do nearly everything for them. No thumbs, no words, no income… and still, these small little creatures bring such joy into our home that we’d be less full of love without them. God blessed us with these rascally little noses-with-tails, and not just on the day we adopted them. God blessed the whole of creation with each aspect of creation all at once. In one beautiful act of love and light and life, God set in motion both human hearts, the pets they would one day love, and all the rest of Creation.
Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
stormy winds that do his bidding,
you mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
wild animals and all cattle,
small creatures and flying birds,
kings of the earth and all nations,
you princes and all rulers on earth,
young men and women,
old men and children.
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
And he has raised up for his people a horn,
the praise of all his faithful servants,
of Israel, the people close to his heart.
Praise the Lord.
Psalm 148: 7-14, NIV
At dawn, I’m driving headlong into the sun, toward the eastern coast of this vast continent. Crossing over mountain tops and through valleys and hills, over rivers and along fields, I witness the creation awaking with the sunrise of a new day. The farther along on this journey I go, the more evidence I gather of God’s great love for us. With each mile I pass fruit trees and cedars and wild animals and cattle and small creatures and flying birds. Kings. Princes. Rulers. Men and women, young and old. Through any manner of weather, hail and lightning and snow and clouds, I journey on eastward into the new day. At last I stand before the ocean depths and say to all the great sea creatures, “Praise the Lord!”
***
I return from the edge of all horizons to the Valley of Virginia days later, refreshed by the salty air of the sea and a good sabbath at the beach. The reflections of the Creator I see on the way home aren’t exactly the same as those of only a few days ago. New reflections, images of life abundant, ever changing and ever growing, have emerged over and beyond the amazing images I saw just days before. It’s the same, but different. It’s…
New.
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”
Revelation 21: 1-5, NIV