After thinking about Sunday’s sermon on the “marvelous faith” of the centurion, I looked up some of the other “marvelous” thoughts in the Bible:
- Job 5:9- “[God] does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number.”
- Psalm 98:1- “Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things! His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him.”
- Luke 4:22- “And all spoke well of Him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from His mouth. And they said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’”
- Matthew 8:27- “And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey Him?’”
Nearly every reference in Scripture to something “marvelous” is about what God has done or is doing, and about half refer specifically to things Jesus did while on earth. That made me wonder—what marvelous things have I seen recently? All too often my observations of the world and events around me are either half-hearted or cynical. As one character on M*A*S*H asked, “What was the last thing you approved of, besides your birth?”
Looking at our sinful society, broken families, and wounded churches, it’s easy to become cynical and focus only on everything that is going wrong and to lose sight of what God is doing all around us. I’ve been rereading The Genesee Diary by Henri Nouwen, about the months that he spent living in a Trappist monastery in New York. One of the brothers there was alive with joy as he talked about the amazing rain, birds, trees, flowers, and everything he saw around him. He was enraptured by the glory of God revealed in everyday experiences. I have to say I’m not there yet. Most of us are probably too caught up in making it through another day and feel we don’t have time to stop and smell the roses or to thank God for life itself.
Besides the seemingly small things of nature (if you can call a sunrise small), and the bigger things of what God is doing in our churches and families, there are many marvelous claims in Scripture that should make us exclaim God’s greatness. One in particular has been on my mind lately: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Not only are we chosen by God, but we are also called into service, made holy in Christ, and we belong to God. And the reason for that is so that we can proclaim who God is, how great He is, and what He has done for us and made available to others. That’s a pretty staggering thought if you dwell on it awhile!
You would think we would be amazed on a daily basis, and yet we aren’t. There are probably several reasons for this, but I think the primary reason is that we take it all for granted. As a toddler, every dandelion was a new thrill. As a new Christian, every new idea in Scripture was an astounding discovery. But after awhile the thrill wears off. We’ve seen it before, heard it before, and maybe even preached it before. There’s nothing new or exciting to catch our attention. I suspect this is a cause for some preachers to spend more time speaking on current events than they do on Scripture.
As the Bible frequently repeats, we need to have “eyes that see and ears that hear.” We need to take a fresh look at the world in general and a fresh look at Scripture in particular. The God of the universe communicated His Word to men to be recorded for our benefit. He sent His own Son to be the Word incarnate and to make a way for us to know Him intimately. Creation speaks the glory of the Lord. As Paul said in Romans 1:20, we are without excuse if we don’t see what God has done.
May we lift up our heads, open our eyes, and marvel at the works of the Lord! And then “Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Psalm 96:3).
