Not long ago I attended a gathering of pastors at a conference center on the beach. Yes, being a pastor can sure be tough. When I find myself at the beach, there’s one thing I just have to do—take a walk. Each time I stroll along the beach, I’m struck by the vast breadth and depth of the ocean, the immense power of the waves as they relentlessly crash on the beach, and the vastness of the sky. The whole experience makes me feel very small…and somehow, closer to God.
I had this same feeling growing up in the shadow of Pike’s Peak, a 14,115 foot mountain that towers over Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was the view from the top of this mountain that inspired the following words from “America the Beautiful,” written it 1863:
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
Living in Colorado Springs under the deep blue skies with the majestic mountains to the west and wide-open plains to the east, I felt small…and that too made me feel closer to God.
While at the beach last month, it hit me: I feel closer to God when surrounded by the grandeur of nature because it makes me feel physically small. This seems to be the feeling that David had as we see in Psalm 8:3-4:
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what are mere mortals that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
The wonders of nature stir in me a sense of awe that reminds me that I am small and, were it not for God’s love, insignificant. I find this reminder very comforting. Just when I think the world revolves around me, or that my next decision might hopelessly derail my life, or that I alone am responsible for making everything turn out all right, God speaks through his creation and reminds me that he is in control. He will take care of things, and I can trust him to do the job right.
It’s nice to be small.
Monte Johnston (
claytonpc.com