1 We sang "Rejoice, the Lord is King" by John Darwell. A picture came into my head of a majestic eagle, steady speed purposeful albatross, protector falcon flying over light green downs fields at maybe 1000 feet, watching over someone. As you go on in life, God is watching over you and willing (as a verb) your purpose in life, much like native Americans would think about it.
There is another related sense in which God is watching over his people (as a group) on earth. With keen strong purposeful eyes he delights in the being of his nation people.
2 On the wall at church there is a short plaque about prayer and how Jesus went to the mountains to pray. Next to it is a picture of a mountain hill. Bare grey rock rolls in smooth solid fabric lines of bulk like a gigantically dense wave, with shrubble (new word :) ) clinging to it in various places. The mountain hill is so desolate, so dense. To sit upon its top is to be devoid of everything, ripped down to the solid core of Christ the sovereign God in you. It is a scary and awesome place. Here we must pray, because that is the only way we may live. With no food or refuge from the storms, we must cling to God like mad, for none else exists to save us.
3 The third thing is merely an idea I had on the drive home from church. I look out at the passing rows of trees, the edge of a forest that I do not know beyond, and I feel so small. Or to sit upon the mount of Kilimanjaro or Everest or Nanga Parabat (I think), only hard rock drops away around you. (note how this is related to picture 2). Especially in the forest, one feels lost. How can you conquer such a complex and unordered world?
Here is the solution: the feeling of lost comes if we think of being randomly placed in a random environment. We assume the world exists in a certain scientific way just because it happened that way. No, you nincompoop! (I'm talking to myself). The world is a gift! God gave us the environment, the forests and plants, the animals, everything! They're for us. From the view, exploring the world becomes an adventure, nothing scary. We treat the world as our own, and as special because it's from God. We don't necessarily shy away from industry which causes pollution, because God gave the world for us to use. But it's ours as a gift, so we don't want to abuse it. It's for our enjoyment, so we should preserve a lot of it to go camping in! Climb some mountains, run pell-mell through some forests, whatever! It's a gift, and that mindset solves a lot of things.
