Revealing His glory

While driving recently with my nearly five-year-old daughter into town, I enjoyed pointing out a crescent moon visible in the daylight sun – something we don’t often see. As I was pointing out to her where exactly in the sky it was, suddenly a patch of cloud cover obscured its view, yet I remained intent on showing her the moon, expecting it to soon appear from behind its veil.

While waiting, I encouraged her to continue looking toward the sky in anticipation of its delightful appearance, and I was reminded of recent discussions in our church’s Sunday School class. I had asked our pastor if when we pray for God to be glorified, do we in essence mean that He would be revealed (in some way in greater measure than already revealed), since we can add no glory to the Ancient of Days, the great I Am?

I’m currently reading RC Sproul’s What is Reformed Theology?, wherein he discusses the holiness of God in the following manner:

“Calvin writes: ‘…men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God. Frequent examples of this consternation occur both in the Book of Judges and the Prophetical Writings [Judges 13:22; Isa. 6:5; Ezek. 1:28; 3:14; Job 9:4; Gen. 18:27; 1 Kings 19:18]; so much so, that it was a common expression among the people of God, ‘We shall die, for we have seen the Lord.’’ …

“Calvin understood that idolatry is not limited to crass or primitive forms like those found in animistic or totemic religions. He realized that idolatry can become subtle and sophisticated. The very essence of idolatry involves the distortion of God’s character.

“As Paul declared to the Romans, idolatry consists in exchanging the glory of God for a lie, elevating the creature and denigrating the Creator. Paul says, ‘Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. [Rom. 1:22-25] …

“Any distortion of the character of God poisons the rest of our theology. The ultimate form of idolatry is humanism, which regards man as the measure of all things. Man is the primary concern, the central focus, the dominant motif of all forms of humanism. Its influence is so strong and pervasive that it seeks to infiltrate Christian theology at every point. Only by a rigorous attention and devotion to the biblical doctrine of God will we be able to keep from tasting and even swallowing this noxious brew.”

As my daughter and I watched for the moon, I initially stated that the moon would rise from behind the cloud, but then corrected myself to tell her that it would actually be the cloud which moved in order to reveal the moon in our sight. This got me to thinking that it is not unlike our own moving down, decreasing in order that He may be revealed – and hence glorified – in the sight of others.

We then talked some more about stars in the night sky – and how they aren’t visible during the daytime. I told her that they’re merely reflections, not unlike ourselves, of a greater Light.