I was trying to
publish this with a photo-shopped picture of the earth cupped tenderly in God’s
hands. But try as I might, it wouldn’t load and so, no picture. So please image it, if you can.You
may not see it immediately just as many people seem unaware of what this
represents –the whole world safely in His hands. Does that trigger a melody in your head right
now? Everybody – let’s sing it together:
“He’s got the whole world in His hands…. He's got the whole
world in His hands....” Were you
singing? Ok,‘nuff of that.
Years ago I was
working in a hospital laboratory in the medical field. One day, shortly after
having just become a believer in Yeshua, I was peering into a microscope at
bacteria just as I had always done but this time a thought came to me. These
microscopic critters I was watching were moving around, seemingly avoiding the
antibiotic dot I had just put on the slide as if they had some form of
intelligence. As I watched them move I wondered if they somehow communicated
with one another. Did they ‘know’ each other? Did they warn one another of the
antibiotic that could be harmful to them? Tiny as they were, they were beings,
just as we humans are beings. I was
suddenly awed by the realization that God is as fully aware of these
microscopic beings as He is of the massive planets He keeps humming along in
orbit. And with that thought came the revelation that God cares as much about
what is tiny to us as He does about what is immeasurably huge to us because
everything is equally His.
More thoughts
came as I pondered this new revelation further. Space, that is to say, size is
immaterial to Him. That sounds like a
contradiction, doesn’t it, since we think of anything that occupies space as
being material of some kind. Even the air or sky is made of what comprises
atmosphere; it’s not nothing. And outer-
space is filled with planets, asteroids, even solar systems. We have no idea
how large the universe is. A new solar
system (new to us that is; it’s been there all along) with seven orbiting
planets around it has been found by NASA recently. One of the planets is
suspected to be possibly life sustaining, such as our earth is. It makes me wonder what other surprises God
has for us to discover. And while NASA
doesn’t seem to be mentioning God being involved, to me – it’s all God!
God is outside
of space, that is to say that space as we think of it is irrelevant in defining
God because He is, as theologians call it, “Omnipresent” – being present
everywhere. There is no empty place that is without God. He is never not
everywhere. In the same way, He is
outside of time. He is always always!
When Moses asked, “Who shall I tell them sent me” the Angel of the Lord (who
presumably was Yeshua incarnate) said, “Tell them I AM sent you.” But the Hebrew says it differently. It says I
AM THAT I AM, which in Hebrew means more like I AM WHAT I ALWAYS WILL BE, and
implies also that He always was. It
means whatever, wherever, whenever or however, He’s there. There is no place we
can go that God is not.
As I pondered
these realities yet another awareness came to me, of the infinite magnitude of
God and His power as I became aware also of the depth of His involvement with
every aspect of His creation. What I saw
in my microscope and NASA’s new discovery of an entire solar system are equally
of God. This translates to me His
concern and caring for each of us as individuals – none too small or
insignificant, and humanity as a whole.
How awesome is He!
We live in the
midst of “world-bound” issues. As new
believers we may have difficulty imagining Him apart from our ideas of space
and time. How can He be equally everywhere at the same time? We accept that He
is but we can’t imagine what that is like.
It becomes even more amazing when we think of how He outfitted an entire
planet that is entirely compatible with life for us. Only touching on this briefly, the earth is
soft enough to grow things, yet hard enough to walk on, to build upon, even
supporting many-ton buildings. We have an ecosystem that circulates water by
going from vapor to rain to streams and rivers to the ocean and back to vapor
again. As for growing things, we have pliable soil, rain and sunshine in the
complex systems that each of them bring to every little plant or each giant
tree. The sunshine is just enough to warm us but not enough to burn us and all
living matter up. And it gives us light.
What about the miracle of our bodies and how each cell and organ work
together. We are also dependent upon the
ecosystem. Including the sun because,
for instance, our Pituitary glands are
sensitive to light, so when it gets dark at night, it then makes us sleepy and
tells us it’s time to rest.
[Note: That’s why if you are looking
at your computer screen at night you don’t feel sleepy and can stay up late.
It’s because your pituitary gland still thinks its day light.]
Needless to say
I could go on about the miracle of our lives and the world that was created for
us. Even though it varies around the earth, most of it is life sustaining. Even
at the North or South Poles, where we cannot exist easily, life still
flourishes. For a photo of wildlife in
the Antarctica, for instance, go to: http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/antarctica_animal.php . Cute stuff.
Which brings up
a question to me: Does God make those adorable animals so cute just for
Himself? After all, who goes to the Antarctica
on vacation to see them? And what about
the beautiful flowers with the lovely aroma that grow where mankind has never
been since the earth was created until recently? Does He create them just for
His own delight? Does that perhaps translate for us into a knowledge of God
that seems to indicate that He could be pleased with us in ways that we might
consider that they’d be insignificant to God?
Does He, perhaps, smile with pleasure like a parent when their son or
daughter does or says or makes something smile-worthy?
So much to
ponder about our wonderful God - like how big is God that He is capable of
holding the world in His very able hands?
It’s a metaphor, of course, meaning God tenderly cares for even our
earth, but He also cares for wee little you and me who live on it. It’s easy to
lose touch with how little we really are in the vast scheme of things when we
are so involved in the much lesser scheme of our own personal lives.
We may be little in comparison to the whole, or even feel little and
insignificant in comparison to some other people, but none of us insignificant
to God. He has His eye on each of us,
helping us stay in orbit with His plan for our lives. Each of us lives in a
colony, like the bacteria, moving around one another, bumping into and
communicating and interacting with one another in our tiny sphere of influence.
But size, or even importance as we see it, is a non-issue for God. We are all equal to Him.
When Yeshua’s
sacrificial death took down the middle wall that separated people, it meant
that no longer would religion, caste, color, race; nor social status, whether
rich or poor, free or slave, Jew or Gentile; no matter of education or
abilities or accomplishments or titles or outward beauty or dress, nor lack of
any of these was any longer a dividing issue.
At least for the early and pristine church. A slave and his master could
- and were - equally members of their community of believers. The Holy Spirit
is at work to restore the Kingdom in that way.
And we each get to be a part of it.
It’s enough to make a person wanna sing praises to Him.
My point in
sharing all this, is to make someone reading this who needs to know that
nothing is too big or too small for our God to be involved you or your
concerns. When my father was a fairly
new 60-something year old believer he told me one day that he had certain
weighty things on his mind. I suggested he share them with the Lord to see what
He might say to him, but Dad’s response was “Oh, I’m sure He’s much too busy.” I think what he really meant was “to busy for
me.” I assured him that the Lord is never too busy for anyone who wants to
share our concerns – or the blessings of our lives with Him. After all, He may well have put us in those
positions either to bless us or to help us to grow wiser and stronger in Him,
to make us more like even Yeshua who “though He was a Son, He learned
obedience through the things that He suffered” (Hebrew 5:8). Nothing is
without divine purpose or intervention for His people. “And we know that all things work together
for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His
purpose” (Romans 8:28) – one of my go-to trust builder verses when I need
to put things into perspective again.
Abba is
committed to making us into the likeness of His beloved Son. And consequently, dear reader, He has your
whole world in His Hands! And for
another thought about time, I more than once have heard, “He’s often late, but
He’s always on time.” We may be in a
hurry but He never is. The word for wait in Hebrew has a root meaning of
braiding things together. Sometimes we
just have to wait until He does the braiding. The delay doesn’t mean He
isn’t working on our behalf. He’s just weaving the necessary parts together.
Patience does need an element of faith, doesn't it?
I may be
overstating all this but my motive for writing so much is that it may be of
value to present a greater awareness of our God and how awesome He is and how
involved He is in every area of our lives.
Maybe some of these thoughts will make a difference in the lives of
other people you know or come in contact with, as you share some of this with
them to let them know that their lives are His hands regardless of their
present circumstances. I’m picturing some of you making a difference for some
folks in knowing this. It can be a life changer. It was for me.
I suggest you
ask Him to show you where He is in even the details of your life and you may be
surprised at what you become aware of.
Don’t down play His still small voice – expect it. It may come as a
thought you never had before. I love those "Aha!" moments when they
come, like the ones I got from looking in a microscope, something I did daily
for years and never saw before. Be consciously alert to some of the God-shaped circumstances
that unfold in your life. Ask Him to help you be aware of even the smallest joy
-- they are His gifts to you.
Considering all
these things about our wonderful God makes me have a surer sense of His hands
securely around me. Forgive me if I get
a little spontaneously poetic:
I’m singing in the
rain,
holy water got turned into wine,
ordinary things began to shine,
forever invaded my sense of time.
I'm still singing in the rain.
