It’s an often-used word, and we hear it in the most unusual contexts. It’s the word awesome.

My 9-year-old grandson Josh and I were playing with a radio-controlled racecar set on the living room floor. Several times he would say, “Awesome!”

On another occasion, as my wife and I were leaving a restaurant, the manager, who was standing by the door, asked, “How was everything, folks?” “Fine,” I replied. “Awesome!” he said.

These two occasions set me to thinking: While it’s fun to play with my grandson and to enjoy a meal at a restaurant, are these experiences really awesome? So I consulted Mr. Webster’s unabridged dictionary. The primary definition lists awesome as “deeply reverent,” “dreadful,” “awful.” I remembered the time that I stood on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. That was truly an awesome experience.

Then I thought of a more awe-inspiring reality still. It’s knowing the Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe. No wonder the psalmist wrote, “The LORD Most High is awesome” (Ps. 47:2).

The next time we hear the word awesome, may it remind us of our great God, who truly is awesome!  — Dennis J. De Haan