We were looking at 'Worship' on Sunday last week, and then at our Bible Study. We find a glimpse of heavenly worship in Isaiah's vision. There the worship of the seraphs was expressed in these words:
Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.

It occurred to me that there's a tension between the two lines. The first expresses in no uncertain terms the "otherness" of God, in that God is "thrice holy", as someone once commented. God would seem to be far from us, in his heavenly temple, with seraphs attending him. He is the transcendent God.

Yet the next line says his glory fills the earth! He is not just "above the clouds", far from any of us. In fact his glory spills out over all the earth.

These two points each pose a different challenge. The first is a helpful counter-balance when we get too familiar with God. Yes, he is our Friend, but he is also holy, almighty God and we stand in awe of him.

The challenge in the second line is to recognise his glory on earth. As we look around it's easy to trouble, tribulation and torment; to see injustice, hunger and suffering. Where is God's glory? Maybe it's in the beauty of the countryside, if I will stop long enough to notice it. Maybe it's in the kind deed, the positive word, even just the smile of one person to another.

I was standing in the queue waiting to pay at the Tesco petrol station on Saturday. I was aware there was an older man in the queue behind .me. A younger man came in and said to him (I can't remember the exact words), "Thank you for backing up to let me through, that was really good of you. You've restored my faith in human nature. Have a nice day," and walked out.

Full marks to the older man who gave way and full marks to the younger man who came in to thank him!

It ain't all bad out there!"