Reverence is the recognition of something greater than the self — something that is beyond human creation or control, that transcends full human understanding. God certainly meets those criteria, but so do birth, death, sex, nature, truth, justice, and wisdom. A Native American elder I know says that he begins teaching people reverence by steering them over to the nearest tree.
"Do you know that you didn't make this tree?" he asks them. If they say yes, then he knows that they are on their way.
— Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World by Barbara Taylor