This morning, as I drove back from Durham to home, it occurred to me just how much we often miss in our lives, how much we fail to appreciate because we are too busy rushing from one place to another; to busy to take the time to really look at all that our God has wonderfully made.
I had no particular time to be back this morning and decided not to rush. I’d drive quickly enough not to be an irritant to other road users, but slowly enough to appreciate the world around me. The first thing
I noticed as I left Durham was the morning sky, white clouds gilded with scarlet and orange and casting an almost ethereal glow over the surrounding countryside. Immediately I began softly singing the hymn, ‘When morning gilds the skies, my heart awakening cries, may Jesus Christ be praised!’
After passing through Barnard Castle and onto the A66 I rose above the snow line. The hills looked fantastic with their covering of crisp white snow, the starkness accentuating the contours of the landscape. At one point I could see lower land with fields still green and lush; a sharp ad incredibly beautiful contrast to the surrounding hills. Had I been driving at my usual up to the speed limit pace I would have missed this completely.
Driving down the M6 I enjoyed the Lakeland hills and mountains, snow covered and majestic and reminding me just how small and frail we human beings truly are. Then I thought of the One who spoke those mountains into being, the God who created a vast universes of a thousand billion galaxies each containing roughly a thousand billion stars; the God who loves each one of us more than we can ever know or even dare to imagine.
Appreciations of beauty, fresh understandings of God…. all because I slowed down and took some time to enjoy my surroundings as I travelled. What potential there is for slowing down in other areas of life, for appreciating God at work, for appreciating out awesome, incredible and amazing God.
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