16 Hours in a Car

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.  Psalm 119:18One day my mother came to me and asked if I wanted to drive Up North. Our family was planning on a weeklong vacation later in the year and she wanted to scout out some cottage sites. It was late on a Saturday morning, and we started off driving to Marquette, 8 hours away. We found a hotel in Marquette that looked okay but had the worst beds I’ve ever slept in, sunken in the middle and no padding. Since sleeping wasn’t easy, we ended up leaving in the middle of the night a nd driving across the Upper Peninsula in the early dawn. Finding a beachside park, we pulled over to watch the sun’s light creeping across the water. It was dark and so quiet and I was half terrified we were going to get eaten by a bear. Lake Superior was cold and the waves lost some of their wildness when painted with pink hues. We sat on the top of a picnic table and stared up at the most stars I’ve ever seen. There were so many, so clear and bright that they didn’t look real. I don’t remember the cabins and hotels we looked at during the trip, I can’t remember where we ate or the songs we listened to…but I do remember those stars and the feeling of wonder I had. I was amazed by the scope of the stars. The feeling that I was so blessed to see God’s creation and be a part of it.

When you read deeper into this verse, you find that the word ‘open’ means to reveal and I like the action in that word. It’s not just that your eyes are going to be opened…but that something is going to be revealed, to be shown to you. Something you couldn’t see on your own otherwise. ‘Wonderful’ has its basis in a word that means extraordinary, marvelous, surpassing and beyond ones power to understand. Those aren’t little words there, those words have weight. When those words are used to describe something, you know it’s a big deal. In this case, those words are being used to describe God’s law. That’s what we need to be revealed to us. That’s what is marvelous, extraordinary and wonderful. It’s the word of God. As I start out this day and this week, I’m going to use this verse as a prayer. That God opens my eyes to His law. That He helps me see the wonder of it and that I learn something new from it. That like looking at the stars on the shores of Lake Superior, when I am reading God’s word that I am filled with wonder.