Higher Power
Whenever travel requires me to take an evening air flight, I make sure I reserve a window seat. That way, I can look out the window into the darkened night and watch cities and towns pass by below.
When the plane takes off the runway, I watch the airport facilities grow smaller.
As the plane picks up altitude, I can see cars stopped at traffic lights. Sometimes I can distinguish schools from churches from apartment complexes.
It’s even more fun when I can see a nighttime baseball game, bright floodlights illuminating the small diamond and the tiny players.
Once the plane has reached its cruising altitude some five miles above the earth, it’s much more difficult to pick out many details.
Still, I can see the outlines of cities and towns, along with an occasional highway.
The final twenty minutes of a flight once again reveal human civilization’s vast scope and technological achievement.
I often look out the little window of my plane, amazed at the breadth and diversity of all I see spread out below me.
Cities and streets that often look so congested and dirty when seen up close can seem awe-inspiring from a distance.
Sometimes I even say to myself, You know, we human beings are really pretty darn smart!
But God has a view of human life that’s even loftier than the one I enjoy when I’m flying.
As God looks down on the entire world from heaven, he has a slightly different perspective on things from mine.
God appreciates much of what humanity has done with the gifts and abilities he has lavished on us. At the same time, he’s less excited about some of what he sees.
He created us to live together on the earth and experience some of the love that is at the core of his nature.
But too often, competition and strife characterize human affairs—both on the global scale and in our dealings with our neighbors.
God created humans to live in a sense of balance with the natural world. But sadly, our civilizations often plunder the earth and leave portions of it uninhabitable for future generations.
God set the earth in the sky where the sun lit it by day and the moon by night. But now, our own electric lights often blot out the beauty and majesty of God’s creation.
There’s still much to admire in humanity and in what it has created. But that’s not the entire story. God stands above all we do, providing a continual reminder of what true glory is.
God, thank you for all of creation. Help me to see beyond this world to the glory and majesty of your nature.