Emerson on creation

"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore: and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile."

We often tend not to appreciate that which we see or are surrounded with daily. True with creation and beauty, but eqully true with such things in life as work and family. When I was snorkeling in Hawaii, what struck me about the fish was that I was seeing them this way for the first time. They weren't in a glossy photo book or seen through thick glass at Marine World. No, right there in front of me. So close I could touch them. Would I lose this holy awe at God's creation if I saw them every day? Perhaps.

What Emerson says is that the beauty of creation surrounds us at all time and we so often pay it no mind. We get calloused to it and perhaps by extension, God also.

More thoughts on this later from Eugene Peterson, but I don't have his fantastic book "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places" in front of me.