The Heavens Declare

I had a weird feeling when I took this picture.  A feeling that a story would come, and that I would have to write about it.  Little did I know at the time--the story would be unfolding before my very eyes.  I took this photo last Friday evening.  We had gone to dinner with our sons and their families to celebrate my birthday.  Afterward, we stopped by a local park so that our 4 youngest grandchildren could play on the toys.  As evening approached I turned and saw the sky.  I took out my cellphone and captured this photo.  Not a great picture but a beautiful sky nonetheless.  The sight took my breath away.  I immediately thought of the verse--the heavens declare the glories of the Lord.  I heard God whisper in my ear--I am a great big God, the creator of the universe, and I made this just for you.  I stood for a moment, trying to hold back tears, and then slowly turned to rejoin my family.

My story does not end there, however.  It takes up again a few days later at church when a friend leaned over during worship and said she felt lead to ask me to pray for her after the service.  Of course, I said yes, but I didn't wait until after church. No, I silently began to pray for her right then and there--I prayed all through worship, all through the sermon and right up until we pretty much had the sanctuary to ourselves.  There were a couple of things I found interesting though during my prayer time for her--one was that my mind kept wandering--bird walks, I call them--but as I tried hard to get back to praying, it dawned on me that God was leading me down certain pathways of prayer.

In the beginning I assumed she wanted prayer for her husband, however, as I prayed I began to think of my nephews who died a few years ago, which then lead me to think about a friend of mine and her nephew, and then I thought of my nephews that are still living--and on and on.  The theme being nephews.  Weird.  No, not so weird.  Because as I sat down to pray with my friend, guess what she wanted to pray for--you guessed it--her nephew!  Isn't God awesome?  He knew just what I needed to start praying for.  I shared all that with her, and we sat there just amazed.

As we left the sanctuary after praying together she remembered a picture she had taken that morning on her drive to church.  The sky was so beautiful that she pulled her car over to take this shot.  And thought to herself--our God is so big!
She pulled out her camera to show me and this is what her photo looked like--

My picture was a sunset, hers a sunrise--both similar, and both declaring the glories of the Lord.  We stood there showing each other our photos, tears in our eyes, marveling at just how big our God really is.  He can do anything.  He can heal us, and save us.  He can protect us, and provide for us.

He is a great big God, and He loves us.  And even the heavens declare the glories of the Lord.