Standing In Awe

This morning I finished reading the Call of the Wild to our boys. Recently our family had seen the movie remake and so, having a copy of the book since I was a child, I decided to read it to them. One of the things that stood out to me this morning was the way the story’s central character, a dog named Buck, was portrayed in the closing pages.

He’s a dog, but a quite remarkable dog. The experiences of the past year have transformed him, inside and out. Stronger than any ordinary sled dog, more fierce and wild than any wolf. His owner, to whom he was devoted, has died and he has cast his lot with a pack of wolves. He stands among them as one of their own, but also as a creature who is very different from them. The wolves accept Buck as their leader and gather around him with what is best described as awe. They are like him, but unlike him. They share the same basic image but they can never be him. They can never equal him.

This afternoon I was reading Psalm 22 and these thoughts on the Call of the Wild came to mind as I read verse 23, which says this in the second part:

“All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!”

The “him” of the psalm is God, the Lord God Almighty. The One True God. The Maker of heaven and earth. We humans are created in His image, and in some ways like Him, but we are also so very unlike Him. Our human nature continually seeks to see Him in ways that aren’t quite true. To make Him more like us than He really is. To look on the Son, who is fully God in every possible way, as merely our friend, rather than to hold Him in awe as our Savior and Lord.

Today I want to encourage you to look to God. See the Father. See the Son. See the Holy Spirit. See how you share in God’s image, but even better, to see how God is completely different from you and I, differences that are all for the best. Differences that leave you and I standing in awe as we glimpse Him and His holiness.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.