Psalm 19:1-4a
Yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world. (v. 4)
“I’m so happy that you decided to spend a Saturday morning in this sacred place,” world-renown cellist Yo-Yo Ma said to the crowd. He wasn’t playing in a cathedral or a concert hall. He was standing in a park near the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge, by the US-Mexico border. This concert in Laredo, next to the Rio Grande, was part of his two-year tour, performing Bach solos in 36 locations around the world.
This area was hardly heralded as a sacred space. It’s commonly known for refugee travel, human need, and heated rhetoric about border issues. On this day, though, a concert interrupted the usual clamor. People in all the areas surrounding the Rio Grande border heard the captivating music of his cello.
The music didn’t stop at the border’s edge. With zero respect for political barriers, notes resounded over the river and throughout the land. The psalmist claims that the witness of God’s glory belongs not just to one people, but to all creation. The whole sky covers every nation telling of God who loves and creates beauty. The whole span of time, from past generations to us today, tells how God creates and recreates.
The psalmist reminds us that some forms of beauty don’t follow the boundaries we set up and, by defying them, remind us who God is. Stars that fill the sky, children that laugh with their families, and people who sing together with one voice proclaim the story of God. We hear it when music fills the space of a border town, and makes it sacred.
Consider
When have you seen an unexpected moment tell the glory of God? When has an instance of disregarding boundaries reminded you who God is?
Pray
God, you welcome us to spaces that we never saw as sacred. Invite us into those holy moments and places that speak your glory. Amen.