Beautiful Variety

1 Praise the Lord, my soul.

Lord my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

2 The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent
3 and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.
4 He makes winds his messengers,
flames of fire his servants.

5 He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved. ---------- 24 How many are your works, Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.

Some of my friends have gotten into birding in the past few years. They keep a list of every type of bird they see. They travel to parks and other special places where they are likely to see a new species of bird to add to their list. When they tell me about it, I am amazed at the number of different species of birds that are out there to be seen. This is true across the animal kingdom: scientists say that the number of different types of creatures on the earth is in the millions.

This vast diversity is a beautiful part of God’s creation, as Psalm 104 shows. In his wisdom God made so many different animals and plants that we haven’t been able to count them all. And in his wisdom God made many different cultures and people as well. This psalm uses poetry to tell about the powerful and beautiful way God made the world. It invites us to praise God for such diverse beauty and for creating the world in the best way possible.

Each of us brings our own type of beauty to the world. Each little brown sparrow sings just a few notes. And God combines with that the huge variety of sounds and other signs of beauty in this world. In all these ways God displays his love for his creation. Let’s praise God for creating a world that is so beautiful and diverse!

Creative God, I praise you because you knew exactly what to create to make the world so beautiful. Thank you for this world that bursts with more variety than I can understand. Amen.