Worthy of Praise

"What a wondrous time is spring," as noted in the campfire song "Pass It On." Especially after a particularly cold winter, as we in Houston recently came out of, the renewal of life at this time of year has most of us falling in love with the outdoors all over again.

Part of the appeal of the birds, the wildflowers, and the fresh air is that, simple as many of them seem, they are beyond our power to produce. The incessant human drive for control notwithstanding, there's something comforting about the thought of a Higher Power taking care of things for us. No person is really comfortable with the thought that everything depends on him, which is why control freaks and workaholics are such an unhappy lot. Fine if all of life is going the way we like, but when it comes to planning and controlling life's million or so aspects, who really wants all that responsibility?

Of course, when life isn't going the way we like, we suddenly want control without responsibility--effectively, the right to order God to "fix" things. Since He tends to be infuriatingly impervious to our threats and demands, we quickly start looking for more pliable alternatives. It hasn't been that many years since "if we can put a man on the moon, why can't we [solve this or that annoying little problem]?" was a regular phrase in everyday talk. If God won't "correct" life's nuisances and tragedies for us, let's start demanding to know why the government and the scientific community, with all they've accomplished in the past, can't focus all their energies on eliminating whatever's bothering us.

That sort of thinking is a dangerous step toward the pride that says humans can do anything God can do. We'd be better off if we quit complaining, took a spring walk in the park, and spent that time considering that the God Whose physical accomplishments far excel ours might also know better how the world should be run.

Oh, the city's soaring skyline is an awe-inspiring sight,
The technology's amazing that can light a home at night,
And with all the new computers we can do great tasks with ease,
But there are other wonders that are greater far than these.

More grand than any skyline is a starlit country sky,
Far brighter than electric lights the fiery sun on high,
And the greatest of computers is the marvelous human mind,
Always seeking, always learning, always something new to find!

We bask in our own glory more than mortals ever should;
So proud of things we've done, forgetting those we never could.
The Creator, He Who rules us, holds Creation in His hand;
So let all of us be humble; He alone is truly grand!