The last few weeks we have have stood in awe as the world surrounding us has displayed it’s power and beauty in the form of a total eclipse and a series of devastating hurricanes. Even as I write this, Hurricane Irma takes dead aim at my home state and potentially my actual home city. This same Hurricane Irma is the most powerful storm in recent history.  We will not know the extent of the damage until it passes, but I now pray for the safety for all in the path of this storm.

Even as we brace for Hurricane Irma in Florida, there are millions more recovering from Hurricane Harvey just across the Gulf in Texas.  I pray for all of them as well.

On a lighter note, we also had the opportunity to “witness” a total solar eclipse (that is if you had a pair of those cool glasses that you won’t need for another several years).

Through all of this I observed something that humans have done since the beginning of time: the worship of nature.

There were claims of awe at Mother Nature/Mother Earth. Expressions of adoration for how amazing our world is etc.

Worship.

Paul talks about this in Romans 1:25 when he says –

“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”

You see, there is a pull in the human heart to praise and worship things we cannot fully comprehend. Because surely if it is beyond our comprehension, it must be praise worthy right?

It amazes me how we can just stop at the awe of nature and not investigate further at the Creator of this nature.

Consider the following –

• The light from the eclipse could damage your eyes from over 90 million miles away
• Hurricane Harvey dumped 33 TRILLION gallons of water on Houston
• Hurricane Irma 185 mph winds fell just shy of the 190 mph record set by Hurricane Allen in 1980 for Atlantic hurricanes.

Amazing.

How do we miss it? How do we miss Him?

We miss Him because we don’t want to see Him. The REAL Him that is.

We don’t want to see and know God as He truly is. We prefer a God made in our image, denying that we were made in His image.

We reject the God Who Is for the God we want and this manifests itself in many ways, in this case I just seemed to notice it in the praise of nature.

Our arrogance blinds us, but it won’t be able to blind us forever. One day we will have no choice but to face the God Who Is.

This quote from Luke Walker captures the point pretty succinctly –

“The sun will burn your eyes out from a distance of 92 million miles. Do you expect to casually stroll into the presence of its Maker?”

Our lives change when we begin to know the God Who Is. My prayer is that we would know Him.