“When times get bad, people cry out for help. They cry for relief from being kicked around, But never give God a thought when things go well, when God puts spontaneous songs in their hearts, When God sets out the entire creation as a science classroom, using birds and beasts to teach wisdom.” Job 35:9-11 Message
Have you ever sat and just watched the stars? Have you considered what they do? Are they just there to look pretty and to entertain us when we decide to stop and take a peek? No, they are declaring the glory of God. They shout day and night by their very existence that God is God and His works are marvelous. Neither storms in space, nor on the earth can cause them to cease their praises. Night and day, throughout the seasons, and throughout all generations their song and existence shout to the wonder of God. They are a continual reminder to us of just how great our God really is. This God created billions of these stars and knows them all by name. Let your mind and heart ponder that reality for just a moment, then consider Job. It will drastically influence your perspective.
When I look at Job and then the universe, he seems to have been mistreated and given a raw deal, but when I consider God, and then Job, I see it very differently. For how could a God with such detail and care to our immense universe not have something incredible in mind for the very thing He created in His own image?
How I see is so crucial to how I live. Walk with me for a moment with this verse. Man leaves God out, man fights with God and God’s plan for his life, but then blames God when difficulty comes. Yet, if we would just stop and look around us, we would see everything telling us that God is working this out. We would see in all of His creation, from the birds, to the crashing waves of the ocean, to the incredible wonder of the universe, that God is not asleep. In fact, He is surrounding us with His presence, and His glory, but we are too busy doing our own thing. Too busy trying to explain it all away, and come up with our own answers to the things that are unfolding.
It is easy to judge Job and his friends. People who just could not lay down their need to know everything, trust that God was good and if this was what Job was called to walk through, that God would be with him. No, they had to have all of their religious answers that were so far from who God was. They had to explain Job’s situation instead of just testifying to God’s glory despite Job’s situation. I have been Job’s friends. I have missed the science classroom all around me when I did not understand what was happening to someone I cared about or in my own life.
God is not wanting us to just look for Him when we are in a moment of desperation, but He wants us to join with all of creation, all of the time to testify of His glory. He wants us to shout with the birds, with the crashing waves of the ocean, with the light of the stars, that He is God, and He is good, all of the time.
Let’s not wait until trouble to call on God and be grateful that He came. Let’s recognize the spontaneous song He puts in our hearts today. Let’s look around and join in the chorus of the heavens and the earth. Let’s not choose ingratitude but stand in grateful wonder of a God who would choose us to join in such a marvelous song.
How Great is our God!
Today I am grateful that my life is not to be lived outside of God’s glory. I am thankful that He has set up all around me His classroom of glory. He longs for me to see and to stand in wonder of this incredible God. I pray He will teach me how to truly live recognizing the spontaneous song placed by Him, and to reject any notion to play God in someone else’s life.