“Greg”, the teacher came up to me
unexpectedly during recess one afternoon, “the principal wants to see you, you
need to go to his office now.”
I never met Mr. Hall, the
principal before. Most of the time when
a second grader was summoned to the principal’s office, he or she was being
summoned to receive discipline for some type of out of control behavior.
I had no idea why I was being summoned. But I went.
When I got into his office, I had to wait for a few minutes for him to
come in.
Time might as well have stood
still for what was probably 48 seconds.
As I waited, I noticed my knees starting to shake a little. They were twitching, and at times, very
rapidly.
Inside of me, my heart literally
melted like wax, as it began to pick up its pace. My hands became sweaty as I gripped the arms
of the chair I was sitting in.
At the core of my being, I was
trembling at the thought of being in the principal’s office. He was the top dog at the school. No one is just asked to go to the principal’s
office for no reason, Mr. Hall wanted to see me specifically (and I didn’t even
think he knew my name).
That memory surfaced as I read
Psalm 97. The feelings I went through on
that afternoon are similar to what creation goes through in the presence of the
LORD.
Before we can see how creation
reacts, let’s first get a glimpse of the top dog of all time, the Lord.
Verse 1-3;
The Lord reigns, let the earth
rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! 2 Clouds
and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the
foundation of his throne. 3 Fire
goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. 4 His lightning’s light up the world;…
I was terrified being in Mr.
Hall’s office, a mere man, how much more if Jesus was to call me into his
office. We have a good picture of what
worshipful fear looks like when we are brought into the presence of God
Verse 4-5
the earth sees and trembles. 5 The mountains melt
like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.
I picture massive earthquakes,
the kind that splits a city in half, and tremendous volcano eruptions as the earth trembling in the presence of God.
And here is what’s amazing. I didn’t think Mr. Hall knew me, but he was
watching me all along. In fact, he
didn’t call me into his office to be punished, but to be awarded (for what I can’t
even recall now, I was so freaked at that moment that it did not stick in the
memory bank).
Jesus Christ knows you
personally. He even knows exactly how
many hairs have on your head. This is
the Lord for whom the earth quakes and mountains melt like wax in front of and
he knows you by name.
Next time you flip the news on
and hear of the massive earthquake or the volcanic eruption that was larger
than 100,000 atomic bombs, just know that the earth just had a glimpse of the
glory of God and it freaked out in worship.
