The wonder of it all

By Robert Hurtgen

Monday is the solar eclipse. Living right on the edge of totality, I am excited about this.

For the past eight months or more, my local tourism office and news media have built up this once-in-a-lifetime event.

I can purchase glasses to safely view the eclipse when I buy a gallon of milk at the grocery store. My children's teachers are planning their activities to be outside to view the eclipse.

Thankfully, my dentist office rescheduled my appointment so they could have a longer lunch.

But not everyone is excited. For them, Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, will just be ... Monday. They say "humbug" to this astronomical event.

I have to speculate on whether some of us have lost our awe.

Perhaps our sense of wonder, curiosity and imagination has dried up. Possibly the ability to explain almost everything away with a few clicks of a web search is keeping us from being impressed. The unending universe has shrunken to fit on a 7-inch screen.

Wonder, imagination and awe -- these are the traits that make us human and aid in response to God.

Psalm 8:3--4 reads, "When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place, what is a human being that you remember him."

The psalmist's prose captures the awe and wonder of one who stops and observes.

You can imagine the psalmist sitting on the hillside, gazing into space, dreaming what it would be like to see the moon up close, staring at the stars seemingly fixed in place, and getting lost in the vast depths of space.

The wonder of it all overtakes him: "Compared to all of this, who in the world am I?" He came to the hillside feeling like a giant. He leaves feeling less than the size of a mouse.

The heavens should capture our attention. The brilliant night sky should make us feel small.

We, however, are not lost in space but found in grace. The created is hidden in the creator. He who set the stars says you matter. You are significant -- not because of what you have done, but because of who he is.

The stars, moon and sun are great wonders. It is a greater wonder to know that God knows. God sees. God cares.

Happy gazing.