The Oates Journal (ISSN: 1098-1446) is a publication of the Wayne E. Oates Institute addressing issues related to spirituality, ethics, and healing from the perspective of pastoral care and counseling.

From the rising of the sun to its going down*

let the Name of the Lord be praised.

It is lightly snowing fat flakes. I am peddling the exercise bike, looking out through old metal rimmed windows in the basement. They remind me of the art library at college where I once pretended I was a scholarly monk in old Europe.

I watch the snow. Wow, I think, such exquisite intricate patterns. Who designed them, I wonder. Through the snow, I see sleeping buds on the dogwood tree just outside the window. Wow, I think. Aren’t they amazing. In a few months, they will open into their distinctively shaped white blossoms. Did the same designer make them, too? And a Paolo Soleri bell, hanging on the deck, an organic design. Wow, I think, and remember architect Soleri’s experimental town, Arcosanti, in Arizona. Where did he get his inspiration? Beside the bell are the remnants of a mud-dauber’s dwelling. There must have been busy life being lived in that house last summer, right outside my window. Wow. How did they learn how to build such a structure?

Does God want to be praised? I don’t know, but on this snowy morning it is impossible not to praise the infinite names—the name underlying all names—of God.

February, Kentucky

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