When was the last time you experienced wonder? Deep, spine-tingling, earth-shaking wonder. The kind of wonder that causes you to stop and check to see if you are actually awake. Then, in the next instant, you realize that you have never felt more awake in your life. Yeah, that kind of wonder.

I was guiding an expedition in the Himalayas when I experienced one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I heard a rumbling. The guest house that I was staying in started shaking. It seemed as though a freight train was passing by the outside of the building. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my warm clothes and ran out into the brisk morning air. Across the valley was the largest avalanche I had ever seen in my life. It was a mile wide and tumbling over a mile straight down the side of Annapurna. Sunbeams reached their flaming fingers through the clouds and exploded the mountains into a kaleidoscope of color. Just as this avalanche roar died down, another woke up, seeming to leap off the mountain before tumbling into the glacial valley below. Each avalanche filled the valley with clouds of snow and echoes of sheer power. The show continued for hours as I sat, transfixed.

I love the way David describes it in Psalms 8: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained; What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”

Have you ever wondered about your own significance? Do I matter? Am I valuable?

David now responds that God has made us just a little lower than angels and crowns us with glory and honor. Imagine that! God honors you. God even wants to give you glory.

We want every person at Big Lake this summer to experience not only the wonder of God’s power, but also the wonder that comes when you recognize that you are part of God’s family and the Divine honors you.

Les Zollbrecht
Director