Renewing our Awe of God

Environmentalist Rachel Carson said, "Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life." It is incumbent on us to deliberately slow down to contemplate the creativity and majesty of the Lord. Doing this puts life into perspective and repositions us to renew our awe of God.
 
Sadly, I believe that our society has lost its awe of God. David's Psalm 8 reminds us of the Lord's excellence. "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor...O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!" (Verses 3-5, 9 - NKJ) When I want to reinvigorate my awe of God at this time of the year, I look outside at the snow-covered ground and am reminded that every one of the millions of snowflakes is unique.
 
Henry David Thoreau says it so well in writing about snowflakes: "How full of the creative genius is the air in which these are generated! I should hardly admire more if real stars fell and lodged on my coat. Nature is full of genius, full of divinity: so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand." As I contemplate this statement, I look at a book that I have come to treasure over the years. It shows me individual pictures of over one hundred snowflakes. The author of the book called The Little Book of Snowflakes, Kenneth Libbrecht, explains that the images are of "freshly fallen snowflakes, captured using a special photo-microscope. The most symmetrical crystals are usually found during light snowfalls, with little wind, when the weather is especially cold."
 
Mr. Libbrecht includes some interesting information about snowflakes in his book. He writes, "Many well-formed snowflakes have six nearly symmetrical branches. Sometimes you may find twelve-branched snowflakes as well. One thing you will not find falling from the sky is an eight-sided snowflake...A symmetrical snowflake is not a frozen raindrop, but rather a single crystal of ice that grows directly from water vapor in the air. The process takes about fifteen minutes, as the snowflake slowly drifts to earth...We do not yet understand all the subtle mysteries of snowflakes. Exactly how the simple interactions of water molecules produce such a dramatic diversity of structures remains a puzzle."
 
The author of my snowflake book is optimistic in his evaluation that scientists do “not yet understand the subtle mysteries of snowflakes." I believe this is a mystery of God that we should accept and then let it grow into an amazing awe of who He is and what He has done. God has left us clues about Himself in what He has created. I am reminded of the song, "How Great Thou Art." "O Lord, my God, when I, in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands have made. I see the stars; I hear the rolling thunder; Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee. How great Thou art, how great Thou art." Why not spend this week contemplating the mysteries of God? It will increase our awe of Him.