Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov wrote: “Overhead, between the formless trees bordering my dissolving path, the night sky was pale with stars. In those years, the marvelous mess of the constellations, nebulae, interstellar gaps and all the rest of the awesome show provoked in me an indescribable sense of nausea, of utter panic, as if I were hanging from earth upside down on the brink of infinite space, with terrestrial gravity holding me by the heels but about to release me any moment.”
Contrast his view of heaven with that of David: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1).
One man looks at heaven and panics; the other, seeing the same sky, marvels in the glory of God. One man looked up and saw a “marvelous mess;” the other, God’s creation. One is filled with dread; the other awe.
What made the difference?
One man didn’t know the Lord; the other did. It’s that simple.
In other words, viewing the world through the lens of faith, through the lens of knowing and experiencing the reality of God, and of God’s love, is not only viewing the world correctly—"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1)—but of drawing hope, comfort, and promise from it, for it does, indeed testify to the power of the Creator.
“But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who, among all these, does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?” (Job 12:7-10).
Sky above -- earth below. It all depends on how you look at it.
