Email Devotion,
Pentecost 8
O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
–Psalm 8:1, NRSV
I was driving home from a day with our youth at this year’s Confirmation Camp at Camp Kirchenwald. And as I was heading south along Mt. Wilson Road, I came upon this magnificent setting. It was cathedral-like in its majestic beauty as the trees that towered over my car, drew my eyes upward. I felt compelled to slow down and pull to the side of the road and just look up for a few minutes, snapping a couple of pictures on my phone. It would have been a perfect moment had no cars driven by at all … but the two or three that did wander by, did not really diminish the moment for me. I was standing in the presence of God, and I felt both the beauty of nature’s call and the power of God’s creative presence. I will not forget this moment for a long time.
And it got me thinking about the other places where I find myself standing in the cathedrals that God has fashioned for us in the world. Some are obvious, and have been built with human hands in an attempt to capture the majestic power of God. We worship in these kinds of spaces regularly, and with the help of hymns and lessons and sacraments and a host of leaders both lay and professional, we occasionally find ourselves experiencing the awesome power of God.
But I wonder about the other cathedrals that you experience in your life. Where do you find them? Where do they find you? Are they wrapped in cloaks of leaves and moss and sunlight? Are they embodied by people that you cherish and who communicate the very Spirit of God into your life? Are they locations that are “holy ground’ for you, where events have occurred in your life which are so very special that the place themselves become cathedral-like in the potency they bring to you through memories? Where does God invite you into the cathedrals that have been prepared for you by the One who loves you best? In your prayers this week, consider that these places might in fact be the “holy ground” upon which you may find the Spirit of God at work in your life.
