Determined grandeur

Monday of the Third Week of Advent

I will give you thanks for what you have done
and declare the goodness of your Name in the presence of the godly.
Psalm 52:9

As I wait for my tea to steep, I gaze out the kitchen window and observe the coming of day. The increasing light illumines our small yard, and the backs of buildings beyond, a rugged urban outline that seems weary and drained this morning. Then my eye is drawn to the clouds moving across a steely sky.

I marvel at their beauty. Gunmetal gray changing shape and hue as they move across my vista. And behind them others flushed rosy and tinged with that orangish color I can never quite describe. This is reflected light I know. A miracle of the sun, the science of molecules and particles and refraction. And something my eye does with all of that that translates it into color.

I marvel at the grandeur of God’s creation, and in the next moment regret that my view is marred by power lines and rooftop vents and decaying urban structures. But then my vision shifts, and I realize my appreciation of this magnificence is not diminished by these obstacles. My eye moves past them, and in their own way they punctuate the glory to be encountered.

As I move past the midway point of my Advent journey, aware that I am now closer to the manger than to the beginning of this expedition, I wonder what obstacles along my way are of my own making, and I marvel how the Holy One continues to open the vista ahead of me.