Glory - Grace Hamilton

Today after work, I went snowshoeing to our pond on camp. It had been snowing all day, and I did not want to let the fresh powder go to waste. I strapped on my snowshoes and started walking, but as I got to the pond, something caused me to stop. When I did, I looked around me and saw how beautiful it was, so I decided to sit down for a few minutes to admire the beautiful day. When I sat, I realized that everything was really quiet. In fact, other than the soft tapping of the snowflakes landing on my jacket, it was completely silent. I have only experienced true silence a few times in my life, but those times are always special and God can speak to us when all other distractions are gone.

Sitting there in the total silence, I began to take in everything that was around me; the tiny snowflakes falling all around me, the cedar trees with their green needles beautifully contrasting the grey sky, and the massive mountains trying to peek out through the clouds. Everything around me was so calm and beautiful, and I was in absolute awe of God’s creation, as I have been so many times this year.

As I looked more at the beauty that surrounded me, I remembered something that I had talked about with my mentor a few weeks prior. We had talked about what our job as God’s people was, and what we boiled our sole purpose down to was: to bring Glory to God. Now, I had always heard that phrase tossed around, but had never taken the time to fully comprehend what it meant. What I learned was fascinating. In Hebrew, the word “glory” means “to give the correct opinion or estimate of.” Hearing, this began transforming me in a lot of ways, because if we are called to bring glory to God (which we know to be true if we look at Isaiah 43:7) then everything that we say or do should be providing an accurate representation of who our God is and what he has done in our lives.

As I pondered the things I had recently learned, I turned my attention back to the snow, and the trees, and the mountains when it hit me. These pieces of creation exist to bring God glory. Sure, they are crucial to the environment and they prove valuable in other ways just as we are all called to different things during our time on earth. But the creation all around me existed for the main purpose of bringing glory to God, just as each of us were created for. The trees and the mountains do a pretty darn good job too of “giving the correct estimation or opinion of” because by looking at them, I can see the power and the love of God. The trees don’t ask for the acceptance and approval of others, or worry about what is next in their lives, or question what their calling is, as I spend so much of my time doing. They simply stand tall, day in and day out, and reveal the glory of God.

I want my life to look more like that of the tree. That regardless of where I end up after the fellowship is over and throughout the rest of my life, my ultimate purpose would remain the same.

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

-Grace