The whole realm of Nature

In our service at church this morning, we sang as part of the communion , the great hymn, "When i survey the wondrous Cross by Isaac Watts. In one of the stanzas, he wrote
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

As those words were on the screen overhead and being sung by our congregation, it is realized that God can not be put in a box. It is very hard to fathom and control all of nature. It can be done in small ways, but it can be extremely difficult when the full fury of nature hits the land such as in Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters. The vastness of the ocean's depth and breadth came to mind as I sang, were the whole realm of nature mine. It would be great to control all of it-=with its regularity of the tides coming in and out on a stable level each day=having a ryhthym that is constant and never changing. Yet in its simplicity, it carries much depth as a body of water. It sustains our earth and our lands are remarkably anchored and floating on these oceans. It is the very part of the air that we breathe.

The role of love acts as a contrast to this realm of nature. The present is way too small. It demands our totality. Just as the wise men at the time of Jesus' birth took a long time for their journey to give a representation of His nature, Easter is going to require a total sacrifice that demands all of us. So we can not just worship the creation-we must give ourselves totally in response to what Jesus has given us already. Praise be to God-the father of Our Lord Jesus.