In my weekly Works & Wonders column, I combine a brief devotional with other interesting and uplifting bits and pieces I gleaned throughout the week. I hope you enjoy this week’s collection! It includes:
- Our Hearts, Our Mouths, Our Very Lives
- Beautiful Life
- A Different Kind of Influencer
- The Most Beautiful Books in the World
- The 50-Year Payoff
- Cellar Spiders
1.
Our Hearts, Our Mouths, Our Very Lives
There is but one God who exists in the Trinitarian relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each of these persons coequal and co-eternal. God made all things, he preserves all things, and he rules over all things—all creatures, all matter, all time, all space, all actions, all decisions, all … everything. In and of himself—without reference to any other being, God has all perfections and is infinite in them all, which means that whenever we consider God’s wisdom, God’s power, God’s holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, we must understand that God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in each of them. Though each of these qualities is distinct, each of them also impacts the others, so that God’s wisdom, for example, is exercised in his power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. God, being who he is and what he is, is worthy of our love, reverence, and obedience-and not just worthy of it, but deserving of it. The only right response to a God like this is to bow the knee to him and worship him with our hearts, our mouths, our very lives.1
2.
Beautiful Life
One of my favorite kinds of song is the kind that simply appreciates the sheer beauty of life. There are many songs that deal with issues, many that lament sorrows, and so on. Well and good. But I really enjoy songs that celebrate beauty and perhaps especially the ordinary beauties. That’s the theme of this new song from Switchfoot titled, appropriately, “Beautiful Life.”
3.
A Different Kind of Influencer
Denise celebrates an unexpected kind of influencer and does so by paying tribute to her husband in his very ordinary but impactful ministry.
Each week at The Wilds I watch young men counselors and operational summer staff flock around my husband. They call his name from a distance and then they come to share their heart that might be full of joy, or it may be a heavy burden for which they’re seeking counsel and prayer. Dale will stop and listen, share wisdom, and pray with them. Then before they leave, they give him a huge bear hug. It warms my heart and I smile as I watch him pour his life into theirs. He’s influencing them to love the Christ he loves.
I appreciate where she winds up with it: “We could all use the wise influence of godly men and women. Let’s have humble hearts that seek for it, but also godly lives that can give it. Who knows who might be needing the bear hug only you could give, but more importantly, the influence that will keep them on the right path!”
4.
The Most Beautiful Books in the World
I have mentioned before how much I love artisanal products, even if I can never afford most of them. That’s the case with these amazing Bibles designed by Klaus Krogh. He talks about the importance of fonts, page layouts, and other elements we often overlook. Unfortunately, he designs these Bibles for Roman Catholic purposes (and hence in Roman Catholic translations). Nevertheless, I appreciate his eye for beauty.
5.
The 50-Year Payoff
Ed Stych celebrates a legacy of a former era: The photo album. It’s interesting how our new ability to take photos without any practical cost (since we no longer have to pay for film, development, and printing) has left us with far more photos but far less curation—and probably far less enjoyment browsing them. There was something to be said for carefully curating photos and placing them in an album.
Ed explains how one of his retirement projects has been trying to make sense of the analog and digital collections. “I have a goal: to curate a separate collection of about 100 photos for each core member of my immediate family — 100 that tell my story, 100 for my wife, 100 for each of our children and so on. That number feels about right. Once a collection gets much larger than 100 photos, people tend to lose interest.”
I can’t deny that I miss the days of browsing photo albums.
6.
Cellar Spiders
It is good to take a closer look at the kind of everyday creatures we so easily take for granted. That’s what Ant Lab did with the humble cellar spider. They captured some extremely high-definition footage to show how it goes about its business of capturing other critters.
I keep saying it: As technology allows us access to more and more of the microscopic world, I’m certain we will find as much to praise God for there as we do in the expansive mountains, seas, and skies.
- James Boyce: “There is but one God, the Maker, Preserver and Ruler of all things, having in and of himself, all perfections, and being infinite in them all; and to him all creatures owe the highest love, reverence and obedience.” ↩︎
