How Great Thou Art! By S.J. Black This past Saturday my wife and I took our twins to the assisted living facility in which my grandmother is currently living. It gives us a good excuse to get the twins out of the house and the elderly folks there really enjoy seeing two toddlers running around and playing. You can see the resident's faces brighten and start glowing with joy when they come around the corner to see two young children coming their way. One of the rooms just off the lobby is a sort of recreation room for the residents. This is a room that has a large number of books, a large television, and various board games. Also in this room is a piano that several of the residents enjoy playing from time to time. On Saturday morning we were walking with the twins and making our way down the hall towards this recreation room. As we got closer I began to be able to hear that someone was playing the piano. Our twins really love the piano, their toy guitars and anything that has to do with music. We are already discussing taking them for piano lessons just as soon as they are old enough. Needless to say, when they heard the piano being played they took off like a bolt of lightning in the direction of the recreation room. The headlines in the local paper were running through my head as I began chasing after them; "Local elderly woman dies after twin mauling…" When we arrived in the piano room, there sat an elderly woman who had a wonderful talent for playing and she had obviously been playing the piano for many years. As she sat there she was playing various songs without any sheet music to guide her. She played several old hymns from memory during the few minutes we stood there listening. I sort of assumed that she was either currently playing piano at a church on Sundays or had spent many years playing in a Church. My family and I attend a Church that really is a wonderful place to serve the Lord. My only complaint with the Church is that the music during services is always 'praise and worship' music with a full band of electric guitars, drums, horns you name it. I enjoy the praise and worship music but sometimes I really do miss some of those great old hymns that I recall singing at church during my younger days. As we stood there listening to the piano, the woman began to play the old hymn "How Great Thou Art." I was instantly taken back in my mind to years ago. In my mind flashed memories of my deceased Grandfather and how he loved the Church where he served for years until the day he died. It had been years since I had heard this hymn, yet somehow I knew a good deal of the words. The rest of the morning I continued to ponder some of the words in this great old song. I could remember most of the first verse as well as the refrain. After continuing to think about this hymn, I had to go on-line to find the words for all four verses. I managed to find the complete lyrics to the hymn on-line and also learned that Carl G. Boberg wrote the hymn in 1885 and that it was later translated into English by Stuart K. Hine. It was mainly the refrain that I kept pondering in my head last Saturday afternoon; "Then sings my soul, My Savior God to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art." What I wonder is do any of us truly comprehend the greatness and majesty of God? Sure we have all sang hymns and read verses such as Exodus 15:11, "Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?" But, do we even have the capacity in our minds to truly comprehend what an awesome and wonderful God we truly serve? Personally, I don't think that I truly can comprehend God's majesty. However, we can catch little glimpses here and there if we are paying attention. Years ago, I had the privilege of going on a hiking trip in Washington state. My companions and I spent eight hours one day hiking up a nature trail to basically the middle of nowhere. The whole day was filled with awe-inspiring views of God's magnificent creation as we climbed further. However, I will always distinctly remember the magnificent views we saw when we reached the top of the trailhead. To this day the view from the top of the trailhead looking down into the valleys on either side is still easy to vividly recall in my mind. One would have thought that the view would have 'lost something' as night began to fall. Yet, as night began you could begin to see the lights of Victoria, Canada in the distance in one direction and lights of other cities in the opposite direction. However, we only noticed the cities in the distance when we could finally take our eyes off of the stars in the sky. That far away from civilization you could see more stars than we normally realize are up there because of all the lights in an urban environment. There were thousands of stars you could see looking in any one direction from the top of the mountain on that crystal clear evening. How humbling and what a statement about how the words of the hymn, "How Great Thou Art" do not even begin to describe the Lord. To think that God created all of the mountains and wildlife we saw on our hike that day. Not only did He make all of creation here on earth, but God also created each of the thousands of stars we saw that evening. How truly Great Thou Art. Perhaps this is what Boberg was trying to express with the mere words of a human when he wrote the first verse to the hymn: "O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works Thy hand hath made, I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, Thy pow'r throughout the universe displayed." King David must also have had the same thoughts when he wrote Psalms 8:3-4: "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" But is it not true that perhaps we do not have the ability to truly understand "How Great Thou Art" as it relates to God? God controls the universe and yet as David mentions in the book of Psalms, He cares for us as humans. While things we can see around us such as nature in all it's glory and the stars above give us a glimpse of the majesty of God, do we really still comprehend this as humans? Are our minds even capable of comprehending this concept? Mel Gibson's new movie "The Passion of the Christ" was released the day that I am writing this commentary. I would hope that if we truly want to see "How Great Thou Art" we would not look any further than the cross. It is truly mind blowing to me to sit and think that the God of Heaven who created and controls all of the stars would step out of eternity into the flesh of a man just to die for my sins. Gibson spends a great deal of time in the movie telling us how Jesus was crucified for our sins. However, I would hope that each and every one of us would remember that why Jesus died is the real message we need to hear. It is also the greatest example God will ever give to us to answer the question of "How Great Thou Art." We find the why behind Jesus' sacrifice for us in John 3: 16 - 17: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." The reason why Jesus willingly laid down His life for us was to provide eternal life and salvation for us. There is nothing that we need to do other than pray and accept this free gift of salvation. If you have accepted this gift of salvation, have you really considered lately what a sacrifice the Lord made for you? Has it changed your life? If not, I would challenge you to really seek an answer from God as to why? If you have never entered into a personal relationship with the Lord by accepting His free gift of salvation, one would have to ask why not? If you feel a desire to learn more about how to accept God's free gift of salvation I would urge you to contact the editor of this website, find a pastor of a local church or even a friend that you know is a strong Christian. They would be more than happy to tell you all you need to know. I hope and pray that each of us would really take to heart just how much God truly loves each of us. He loves us so much that He was willing to die a horrible death so that we could have a relationship with Him and receive eternal life. I also pray that each of us would always keep in mind that we will never truly understand this side of heaven, "How Great Thou Art." ******** -------------