During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8:3-9
In 2022, my friend and backpacking partner Hazen Dempster hit the lottery. No, he did not play the numbers and win a potful of money; he won the rights to reserve a night at Phantom Ranch, a lodge at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Here’s the hitch: you can only reach Phantom Ranch by walking there or riding a mule from the rim of the Canyon down to the bottom. Hazen and Lisa were gracious enough to invite me and Lib to join them.
After a night or two on the rim, the day came when we would travel to Phantom Ranch. Lisa and Lib rode mules, while Hazen and I walked via the South Kaibab Trail. It was a 7.5-mile hike, with a descent of around 4780 feet. (Yeah, the hike out the next day was “special.”
I had not experienced the Grand Canyon previously, so when we arrived on day one, I was pretty blown away. Over the next couple of days, we rode around a bit, and took a couple of short hikes.
The day that Hazen and I walked down, however, was a day I will never forget. There is one point where the trail makes a turn, and the spectacle of the canyon is spread out before you. The spot is literally called the “Ooh Ah Point.” It is aptly named; when you reach the point and look at the grandeur of creation before you, pretty much all you can say is “ooh, ah!”
I have no idea how many times I voiced a one-word prayer that day: “Wow.” Time and again as I saw the work of God in nature, I was stopped in my tracks. That night, with the benefit of sparse lighting, we were able to look up and see the glory of God revealed in the stars that were shining in all their glory—the glory of God!
While this trip was a remarkable experience that left me with memories for a lifetime, it was also a spiritual experience. I was impressed not only with the creative power of God, but also with the immensity of the responsibility to be a faithful steward of the creation with which we have been entrusted.
It is not only the incredible beauty of creation that stops me in my tracks; sometimes it is the awesome responsibility of caring for the world in which God has placed us. One day I hope that my grandson’s grandson will stand at the Ooh Ah Point and have the same reaction that I had that day. I hope that the generations to come will be able to enjoy freshwater lakes, mountain streams, snow-capped peaks, and sunsets over oceans.
One way to insure all this is to accept the stewardship of this, God’s world.
For Reflection
- When was a time that the beauty of creation stopped you in your tracks, and you were impressed with the creative power of God?
- Have you ever considered, looking at a starry sky, that the God who made everything is mindful of you?
Prayer
LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! I thank you today for the beauty of the world around me, and the ways it directs my thoughts and prayers toward You. Thank You for entrusting this creation to humankind, and to even little old me. Help me today to care for Your world as an act of worship. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Devotionals