O God of the universe, King over every nation. You are the living and true God, and none is like you. King eternal, you are great and your name is great in might. At your wrath the earth quakes and the nations cannot endure your indignation. Who would not fear you, O God? And who would not bow down before you? For you are worthy to be feared. Among all the kings of all nations of all times, there is no one like you. For you alone and no one else, you only are God, YHWH, the Lord of Hosts. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth with all that is in it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve all of them with your vigor.
The
host of heaven worships you, and you know each one of them by name, and by your power they are kept in their place. The sun, the planets, the starts, the meteoroids, the moons, the solar systems, the galaxies, the black holes, and the unfathomable wonders of the universe, are the work of your hands and you designed them in detail; you created them by the word of your power. Not only have you put them in their place, but you also have established the physics and gravitational laws that uphold in equilibrium the immensity of the cosmos with all and each one of its components. Though we are overwhelmed and astonished by the things that we can see and partially understand, there is a myriad of celestial bodies and phenomena that our minds cannot grasp or whose existence is still unknown to us. However, you know the most concealed mysteries of your creation.
O God, you are amazing! King of the universe, infinite God, before the ages and throughout the ages, you are Lord. It is incomprehensible that, with the unlimited power that you possess, you would have set your eyes on weak and diminutive men. How arrogant we are! How foolish and ignorant! Our minds are veiled and corrupted by our ungodliness and sin. Our vision is completely darkened by our pride. The putrefaction of our souls has reached all the cracks of our being, and depravity affects all the areas of our reality.
We believe that we have the right to control our lives and to walk the paths that we crave, without being accountable to the Inventor of our substance, the Architect of our being, the Supplier of our very breath. We rebel against the only one who has the power to deliver us from slavery, to give us abundant rest, to raise the dry and inert bones of our spiritual death, to flood with life hearts paralyzed by selfishness and fictitious self-sufficiency.
My cancerous soul was running away from you. Even when I had tasted the sweetness of your whispers, even when my ears had enjoyed the tones that carried the excellence of your name, even when there was a partial knowledge of your presence, my obstinate will refused to surrender before the feet of him who was able to provide the happiness that persistently eluded me and that I had so much longed for.
In the midst of my desolation, everything seemed to be favorable in the surface: a prestigious degree, a promising career, a juicy salary, an overflowing bank account, a loving family, a protecting roof… I had almost everything, but in reality I was poor, miserable, naked and in total spiritual bankruptcy. My blindness was absolute and terminal cancer spread all over my soul, without hope and without God. I was openly opposing you, hating you and despising you with my attitude, rejecting you with my pride, resisting you with my insignificant power, I was your enemy, a son of disobedience, a recipient of your wrath, your anger and your fury. I had no desire to change or to turn to you, to fix my sight unto the throne of God, from where my help could come.
Until one day… O what a grand moment! O what a marvelous occasion! Despite my barren resistance you fractured my stubbornness; you defeated my opposition with your gracious mighty arm; you smoothly, lovingly, gently, firmly, decisively ceased my frenetic rush towards hell. You turned my view in the direction of your glory and my strength fainted, the scales fell off my eyes, life began to flow through my thirsty parched veins, my heart started beating – it was of stone, you transformed it to a heart of flesh. My crippled legs were freed and they leaped with joy, my dormant arms were articulated and I lifted them up to heaven, the heaven that cannot contain your splendor. My tongue was untied to shout with joy and authentic liberty, to proclaim the virtues of him who called me from the darkness to his marvelous light, to utter worship that my filthy lips had never pronounced. Suddenly, my hearing was made sensitive to your sublime words; my eardrums resonated in harmony with your peaceful message of incomprehensible love:
“My life I give for you, my blood I shed in your place. The fury and eternal punishment that you deserve with all justice… I absorb it. The unquenchable fire of the righteous divine wrath assigned to you… I consume it in my body. Your sins are forgiven… I pay them on your behalf. The decree of crimes that accuses you is nullified and nailed on this cross… my cross. Your death, your cancer, your illness… I suffer them. Live! Go! Run! You are free!”
Why my Lord? Why so much love for a vile sinner such as I? Why peace for your enemy? Why extend mercy to an insolent adversary? Your grace, o Lord, is inscrutable. Your love cannot be compared at all to the futile human intents to imitate it. Love is an abused word, used to write manmade songs and poetry which are empty and senseless. Love, for humanity, is simply another synonym for the insatiable craving of man to receive all attention for himself, seeking to obtain his own benefit. Human love is nothing but a cheap grotesque forgery of divine love, which is real and true.
You loved me first, when I hated you. You absorbed in yourself the punishment that I deserved because of my sin, even when I was your enemy. When there was no sign of submission before your sovereignty, you my Lord, the Infinite, the Almighty, the Creator, the one who dwells in unapproachable light, you, my God, gave me life, you freed me, you saved me!
Therefore, O Lord, I beg you, I plead you, through your endless power enabling me by your Spirit, grant me to honor you as you deserve. That for the rest of my short existence, I may live to glorify your name by means of my studies, job, free time, service in your church, thoughts, actions, values, decisions, will, worship, and my desire to share with others such an extraordinary love available to all who are, like I was, dead in trespasses and sin, so that they may receive immeasurable mercy from the God perfect in justice and magnificent in overflowing grace. Amen.
My dad went down to open the door wondering who would deliver packages at 10 pm. The surprise was great when he found out that the packages were alive as he lifted up his arms filled with joy :)
When mom heard the voices she jumped up from bed and run down the stairs together with my sister to welcome us with many hugs and kisses and overflowing ecstasy.
In pure Bolivian style, they organized a celebration for Caryn’s birthday in two days. She blew the candles of a delicious cake reading: “Caryn, may the Lord bless you” while the family sang not one but three birthday songs.
host of heaven worships you, and you know each one of them by name, and by your power they are kept in their place. The sun, the planets, the starts, the meteoroids, the moons, the solar systems, the galaxies, the black holes, and the unfathomable wonders of the universe, are the work of your hands and you designed them in detail; you created them by the word of your power. Not only have you put them in their place, but you also have established the physics and gravitational laws that uphold in equilibrium the immensity of the cosmos with all and each one of its components. Though we are overwhelmed and astonished by the things that we can see and partially understand, there is a myriad of celestial bodies and phenomena that our minds cannot grasp or whose existence is still unknown to us. However, you know the most concealed mysteries of your creation.