In seasonal transition, summer is passing the torch to fall. As I write, outside the palladium window I see the beautiful sunrise with radiant shades of pink and purple. It’s awesome!
The first time I heard a live performance of Handel’s Messiah I was filled with awe. I sat alone for a while in the auditorium worshiping God with adoration as the Hallelujah Chorus echoed in my heart. Every Advent season I look for a time and place to hear again the Messiah.
George Frideric Handel composed Messiah with little sleep or food. He never left his house during the three weeks he was writing. A friend who visited found him sobbing with intense emotion. As Handel described what he had experienced, he alluded to Saint Paul's words, “Whether I was in my body or out of my body when I wrote it, I know not.” When he completed the Hallelujah Chorus, he told his servant, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne with a company of Angels” (Revelation 19:6).
This awe and adoration must be a small measure of what Jeremiah sensed when he wrote this verse.
QUESTIONS:
1. What grips your soul? Is awe by itself worship of God?
2. How do you move from awe to adoration?
PRAYER:
Father, open to me the mysteries of the Gospel of Your Christ Jesus. Fill my whole being with the presence of Your Holy Spirit.
Diane Ward
