God longs for us to live in awe of one another

​Our boys have been blessed to see a lot of beautiful scenes around our country. In turn, I have been blessed to witness the awe on their faces, moments of complete disbelief, as they've taken each one in. On more than one occasion, the joy I found in how they viewed the world exceeded the beauty I found in what they were actually looking at.

More often than not, it's children who drive home the simple lesson that there's too much beauty around us to get caught up looking for something ugly.

But then they become adults.

It's sort of a did the chicken or egg come first thing for me.

How do kids who are easily awed by everything around them turn into adults who are easily annoyed and put off by the people around them? Is it that as they grow, the scenes around them become repetitive, old news, and therefore less likely to capture their disbelief. Or, is it as they grow, they see adults who are more taken in by the ugly in the people around them than the beauty in the world around them?

Does awe wear off, or do we learn the world's not as beautiful as we thought?

I don't know. Either way, I believe we were meant to be awed. Awed as kids. Awed as adults.

You know, in the Genesis account of God's creation, when God has created all of the world except for man, he steps back and takes a look and says, ah, this is good. But you know, it's a small detail but not small at all to me, after God created man, he stepped back, I think did a double take of sorts, and said, this is VERY good.

When I read the Genesis account, and I see that 4-letter word VERY added after God created me - I picture him looking at me with awe. He made sure VERY was added to make sure one day I'd read it and feel that awe.

That word serves as a reminder that on the days I'm not so awesome, God is still looking at me and saying VERY good. There is nothing repetitive in my life, not the beauty in my life or the downright ugliness in it, that leaves God anything less than awed by me.

He created the seas and the skies and the water and the animals and said man this is good. But then he created me and he created you and he said, oh yes, this is the part of my creation that has forever captured my heart.

Some days, when I get drawn into judging the people around me, I picture God looking at those very same people like my boys looked at a snowcapped mountain for the very first time. The very people I'm looking down on with disdain, God is standing there, right beside me, looking at them, mouth wide open and overcome with awe, declaring this is very good.

Some days it's helpful to hear what God is saying about those people and let go of what I'm seeing in them. After all, God grants me that very same grace every minute of my life.