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One cried out to the other:Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!
All the earth is filled with his glory! Isaiah 6:3
Tiny hands rest under His small round chin and His eyelids are closed over eyes that can focus only a few inches. Short breaths puff through his little pink lips. His mother stares in wonder at the gift she holds close to her heart.
Old Testament Scripture is replete with praise to God for His glory, glory that can be seen, and heard, and felt in all creation. Yet not until the perfect Lamb entered the earth did man(kind) behold the fullness of His glory. When Mary Child was born, even the angels could not contain their joy. When God became Man the whole earth truly was full of His glory. Wikipedia says: Glory (from the Latin gloria, is used to describe the manifestation of God presence as perceived by humans according to the Christian religion.
Divine glory is an important motif throughout Christian theology, where God is regarded as the most glorious being in existence, and it is considered that human beings are created in the Image of God and can share or participate, imperfectly, in divine glory as image-bearers. (Thus Christians are instructed to let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
And our Catechism goes deeper: The holiness of God is the inaccessible center of his eternal mystery. What is revealed of it in creation and history, Scripture calls ,the radiance of his majesty. In making man in his image and likeness, God crowned him with glory and honor The glory of God consists in the realization of this manifestation and communication of his goodness, for which the world was created God created all things not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it, for God has no other reason for creating than his love and goodness.
From Paragraphs 2809, 293, 294 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
I have known the overwhelm of the presence of God in His magnificent sunsets and sunrises, and flowers and trees of countless shades of color. I’ve pondered the heights of the
Rockies and the vastness of the Pacific Ocean; God is present there. I have seen His glory in the works of people like St. Teresa of Calcutta and thousands of other saints, both
contemporary and ancient. His presence touched my heart in a unique way that remains today when I walked the First Century roads of Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. And in Assisi, Italy, when I closed my eyes, I thought surely I could reach out and touch Him, so great was His glory in that place. I have even been made aware of His presence in the writers of the students of Jesus Twelve, known as the Apostolic Fathers. I see Him in the three daughters He has blessed us with. Naturally, I experience His actual presence each time I receive Him in the Eucharist, and at Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament as I sit in silence and awe before Him. I did not fathom I could know more of the fullness of His majesty.
Yet, today I marvel at a new part of His creation: little, soft hands propped under a pink chin of a round unblemished face, eyelids with downy lashes are lightly closed, and wee, squeaky baby sounds escape small cherub lips.
Today I gaze upon our first grandchild, created in the image and likeness of God, out of His love and goodness. His Light does shines in the earth that is full of His glory. I pray this little one will lead with that Light.
To Jesus, through Mary-Cheryl Ann Wills
