It was exceptionally comical except for my frustration. The clear blue sky met the deep green of the Gulf of Mexico. The powdered sugar sand slid between my toes as I tried to get a better angle and the engines roared over head.

“I’m missing it!” I protested.

The Thunderbirds were putting on a air show for the nearby beach, but the one we stood upon was reaping the amazing benefits. Like many other beachgoers nearby I was scrambling to capture their amazing stunts with my phone’s camera. How in the world the planes could sneak up on me was embarrassing. The powerful booms echoed up and down the beach as we squinted in the sunlight trying to decipher which way they would drop in from next. 

Somehow every pass left me with video footage of beautiful blue skies and not much else. 

What the cuss?

Something so big and amazing and I couldn’t get it on my tiny screen. Everyone else seemed satisfied with their results as they oohed and ahhhed over their videos. Finally my husband once again came to my rescue and said he’d do it. And he did. The images were brilliant yet mystifying—as in what is wrong with me that I couldn’t capture this?

I’d already spent a chunk of the morning attempting to take pictures and videos of the magnificent waves as they crashed up and down the extensive shoreline. Snap pics of the pelicans bobbing atop the ocean or the tiny sandpipers dotting the vast expanse. 

Much like the dozens of times I have attempted to photograph the glory of the moon, none of these quite captured what I was experiencing. As great as his images were, it was still something you need to witness for yourself to comprehend the power.

So I finally quit trying to capture and instead just enjoyed.

I reveled in the sounds and soaked up the sun. It was harder to do than I thought. That inherent need to “do” something, to appropriate this beauty for my own selfish desire doesn’t like relinquishing.

The extravagant beauty and power are but tiny glimpses of God’s full grandeur. The desire for it is built into our very beings and I would guess the effort to capture it follows right along. Yet I can’t help but think it is where we often falter. For there is no capturing God.

So many times I have heard the quip, “don’t put God in a box.”

Laughable on the literal surface as there isn’t a chance. And yet, we continue on day in and day out trying are darnedest to make him small, bring him down to our tiny ant hill level.

This day, like most, I was guilty again. Nothing like attempting to secure his majesty and beauty and trying to cram it into what, exactly? A phone! Worse yet, taking the glory for ourselves in our pitiful way as we post and claim credit. 

The most amazing things in creation cannot be contained—much like their Creator. They, in fact, will not be contained. Their enjoyment diminished as they are filtered through so tiny a lens.

What is so big to me—the beauty of the moon, the vastness of a mountain, are but tiny pieces of God’s fullness. When we dismantle them piece by piece with our scrawny scalpels and try to repackage them, there is no doubt something lost. 

This is where the shift begins—from Creator worship to creation worship. Romans 1:19-23 spells it out so clearly: “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

God reveals his eternal power and divine nature. They cannot be ignored but they can be enjoyed. We are without excuse and our dark hearts readily grab at the glory, seeking to turn it towards ourselves. 

It is deeply convicting when I do not open and embrace God’s gifts on display but instead attempt to parse and repackage and take credit. We think we can box him in.

God forgive us for thinking so little of You that we lose the wonder of worship. Forgive us for thinking that Your creation is somehow our glory. Forgive us for missing how big 

You are, and how much You have for us, by trying to make You fit within our confines.

The breathtaking beauty is that we are forgiven when we submit and accept God’s gift for us. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. His righteousness, His glory, His beauty does actually become ours. It is just who He is through the gospel of His Son.

Though we have tried again and again to capture that glory of God, He still gives  it freely through the redemptive work of the cross. 

When we glimpse the real beauty, the real glory of His power and worth, we are the ones captured. He hems us in and offers all the gifts He has to give. That creation to Creator worship is suddenly shifted back into proper perspective. The proper perspective lets our lens adjust to find what we were looking for all along.

After my meager and unfruitful attempts to record those pilots at work, I wanted to learn more about the F-16s and what goes into the pilots’ effort. As I scrolled through the Thunderbirds web site, I was struck by the description on the page that oh so perfectly sums it all up: “where grace meets power.”