Eclipsed by Glory

 When all of a sudden I am unaware of 

these afflictions eclipsed by glory,

and I realize just how beautiful You are

and how great Your affection is for me.

David Crowder

When the water is flat all the way around, that's golden.  That's the glory of God reflected in sky and water, a mighty hooraying of all He has created.  Breath-snatching, reorienting, right-sizing.

This morning was particularly perfect.

Seems fitting for a day set aside as "the Lord's day."  

Remember that phrase in the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy?  Describing the worship of the angles... "Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea?"  Scripture often uses the image of perfectly flat water to represent a place, a state where God's will is perpetually being carried out.  The kingdom of God, in other words.  "Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven."  Like that.

It reminds me, again and again, any time I come out from the Shadow and the water stretches out like glass before me, that He is everything.  He is holy.  He is totally in charge.  And He is just so beautiful!

And then, like David Crowder captures in his song How He Loves Us by David Crowder, everything else kinda doesn't matter so much.  Whatever's bugging me?  Oh yeah.  This.

Big breath in.  Hold it.  Release.  You are God, I am not.  And all that's heavying my heart is (pause) lifted.  Lovingly.  Because...this.

"For our light and momentary troubles

are achieving for us and eternal glory

that far outweighs them all.

So we fix out eyes not on what is seen

but what is unseen,

since what is seen is temporary,

but what is unseen

is eternal."

2 Corinthian 4:17-18

Oh glorious last Sunday of the summer!

Hope you can find your own spaces of worship.  It really does help set things right.