Look closer

I was walking home today and saw so many things I had never noticed before. When I got home I stopped to look at a leaf I had picked up on the way.

It really struck me how amazing the world is that we are part of. Try thinking through this tomorrow when you are outside or go outside now!

Focus on the leaf, hold it, feel it, it is real, you are real, you are connected with it. Think of how many different things it has going on inside it to make it grow, to give it its colour, the energy stored in it that can give another creature life. It is amazing! And it is only a small part of our world

Focus outwards. Consider the birds of the air, the grass, the sounds. Become aware of all that is around you the wind on your face, the ground beneath your feet, the gravity that keeps you anchored. . What do you see, hear, smell, sense. This world is amazing.

Focus further out. See yourself in global perspective, on a planet spinning, a tiny jewel surrounded by billions of stars, the unimaginable vastness of space. Consider you’re part of a miracle.

Develop a sense of awe at the world you’re in. God’s name echoes around it, his autograph is all over creation. As you think of the world, thank God for the environment he’s given you, the world that sustains you, all that you see and sense.

Watch this and consider the awesome world we are part of!

Psalm 8, from the Bible talks about creation. Chew over some of the words as you go about your day.

God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.

Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs that drown out

enemy talk, and silence atheist babble.

I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewellery, moon

and stars mounted in their settings.

Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, Why do you bother with us? Why take a

second look our way?

Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods, bright with Eden’s dawn light. You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge, made us lords of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps.

God, brilliant Lord, your name echoes around the world.

(King David, The Message Translation)