Most of the time, the difference between something big and something small is not controversial. Oh, I know that there are certain times where characteristic measurements might be a little subjective. Someone feeling “a lot” of pain might feel differently than the same pain would feel for another person. But a blue whale, it seems to me, is objectively big, while a flea is objectively small. Yes, there are exceptions to those I suppose … like for me, the smallest of insects seem enormous and scary because I have an inherent fear of most of them. Living in Texas pushes that fear to the absolute limit!
Something also objectively big … well, someone … is God. While that’s mostly universally understood it sometimes doesn’t seem universally applied.
God is big. That seems like the ultimate understatement of understatements. I mean, we’re talking about the One who spoke the universe into existence. You know, the universe that is so vast that it can clearly be stated that our brains are not able to actually perceive the size of it. That mind-blowingly enormous universe, which houses stars (billions of them in fact) that make our own sun seem the size of an atom came as a result of the mere word that God spoke. God is big.
And yet, God can also be small. What do I mean by that? Let’s have a look …
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?
Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights? Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
“What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.
There are a lot of ways I think the truth about God is often misconstrued. Our understanding of who He is, His bigness, and His smallness are crucial to our ability to relate to Him and more importantly to have relationship with Him.
Some people think God is too big to care about the small things or that He’s too big to be known. But when we truly consider such a position, that’s not a big God, that’s a small God. Let’s reason though it … a God that is able to speak creation, the universe, etc., into existence seems to me to be a God who can do anything. In fact, the Bible teaches us this is the case (Matthew 19:26, Job 42:2), that God is omnipotent (all powerful). If He is able to do anything, it seems to me that he can do little things as well as big ones. Logically, it must be true, since a God that can do ALL things must be able to do big things and small things, since those both are a part of ALL things. In a similar manner, a God that can do all things can do in us – His creation – what needs to be done for us to be able to know Him. I’m not saying that we can know all things about Him, but we can know Him, we can relate to Him, we can have a relationship with Him. He gives us that ability … by virtue of His ability.
Therefore, we can say that He is so big that He cares enormously about the small stuff. That bigness makes Him able to be intimately focused on the details of our lives. And what a blessing that is! The God who is infinitely bigger than we can imagine can care infinitely about everything in your life and my life. That big small factor is so powerful. He can care about our health, our family, our finances, our job, our fears, our pain, our past, our future, our present … and on and on and on. Not only is He so big that He can, He’s so big that He does!
And yet, that big small factor also has to anchor us in some other crucial truths that can help us through our circumstances. That is, while he absolutely cares about everything we care about (the small), we also have to remember that He also knows infinitely more than we do including the “not yet” stuff. That is, the things that haven’t happened and the way He will carry out the days of our lives in view of the days of every other life in His creation (the big). That gives me peace, knowing that with the cares about my health, my family, my finances, my job, my fears, my pain, my past, my future, my present … He is working all things together for good (Romans 8:28) even if those things aren’t the things I want. He is big, and I am small. He knows big, and I only know small.
For those reasons, we can take comfort. We know in the bigness of who God is, the bigness of the challenges of life are ultimately quite small. He can handle them. He is handling them presently. Let’s trust our BIG God to handle the big things of our lives, so that the reality of how small they are to Him will transform them to feel small for us.
“Even the very hairs on your head are numbered.” Regrettably, for me that’s a small thing and the Bible says our big God cares even for THAT.
Soli Deo gloria!
MR
Renewal 