Self-Disclosure

I (Jim) love to travel to beautiful places. From Maine to southern California the glory of creation touches me deeply and sometimes it takes my breath away. Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs is one of those places. The rock formations and colors shout without words.From a Christian perspective creation is a grand self-disclosure of God. So full of glorious creativity is the Triune God that we could rightfully proclaim that all of nature is the "Garden of God."But creation is not God's most profound and beautiful self-disclosure. God's most overwhelming act of self-disclosure is seen in his Son. "For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body" (Colossians 2:9). "The Son reflects the God's own glory, and everything about him represents God exactly" (Hebrews 1:3).As one writer summarized, "To see Jesus is to know, in repentance, what is wrong with us [me], to glimpse, in hope, what is beautiful in us [me] and to taste, in ecstasy, the God who summons us to union."One of my prayers for myself this year is that I would be more amazed by the beauty of Jesus. He disclosed the self-giving character and beauty of the Father that rocks, trees, and sky cannot begin to match. I want my heart to be captured by him.