Staring at Carpet in the Art Gallery

"All the world's a stage," Shakespeare wrote. It's an art gallery, too.

Imagine being invited to have dinner at one of the world’s foremost restaurants and ordering…a hotdog and plain potato chips. Or visiting the famed Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and spending the entire time reading a Looney Tunes comic book.

This morning I read an insightful observation by author Max Lucado, about our proclivity for not appreciating the wonders of God’s handiwork: “We live in an art gallery of divine creativity and yet are content to only gaze at the carpet.”

That’s not to discount the impact of stylish, colorful carpet on a room’s décor. But if you went to a prestigious art gallery, you’d admire the work of Renoir, Monet, Picasso, Remington, even Grandma Moses – not the polyester pile underfoot.

Similarly, walking out our front door we are surrounded by myriad wonders the Lord has created, but too often our response is a disinterested shrug.

A full moon spotted in the morning hours.

Consider the majesty of the Grand Canyon; grandeur of Pike’s Peak, and the “kissing camels” in Colorado Springs’ Garden of the Gods; sparkling waters of the Caribbean; thunderous Niagara Falls; a star-filled, cloudless sky; Tennessee’s picturesque Smoky Mountains; a full moon at an early morning hour; spectacular sunrises and sunsets.

Then there are manmade marvels for which God provided the imagination and innovation to build: Monuments and museums in our nation’s capital; the magnificent skylines of New York City and Chicago; the centuries-old castles and cathedrals of Europe; the stately pyramids of Egypt, Mexico and South America; bridges proudly spanning our great rivers.

Accosted daily by such splendor, beauty and endless variety, I can’t comprehend complacency toward God and His creation. The Bible says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world” (Psalm 19:4).

What more evidence do we need?

Sadly, instead of acknowledging and adoring the God who made all of this possible in this “art gallery” we call earth and the universe, we’re examining tiny tufts in the carpet.