Worship

Worship

Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of the Lord’s Temple. At the entrance, between the foyer and the bronze altar, about twenty-five men were standing with their backs to the Lord’s Temple. They were facing eastward, worshiping the sun!

Ezekiel 8:16

Ezekiel was a priest who, along with other citizens of Judah, lived as a captive in Babylonia. During this period of time he was a powerful messenger of God, pointing out that each person’s individual response to the Lord determines his or her eternal destiny. More specifically, it’s who or what we worship that determines our future.

In the verses above, Ezekiel had a vision of priests who were worshipping the sun. Admittedly, the sun is awesome. It gives us light, it rises and sets each day, it gives off heat, and it is a stable and predictable point of reference seen by human beings everywhere. But the sun is not God. Rather, the sun points to God.

We run into trouble when we worship the things God has made instead of worshipping him. Taking a trip to Brookfield Zoo in Chicago is a worshipful experience for me. Realizing that God imagined and created the giraffe with its long neck, the zebra with its stripes, and the polar bear who loves to play in the water helps me remember how big God is!

God deserves our worship throughout each day. Going to the grocery store with our child and acknowledging the great variety of fruits and vegetables that God created is worship. Watching a cat give birth to kittens can lead to worship. The question is, in all the exciting, awesome experiences of life, do we give credit to God, or do we consistently worship the things themselves?

Father,

Forgive us for paying more attention to things you have made than to you. May our hearts be inspired to give you worship each day for what you have created and provided. Amen.