Over the years I have always heard that Size Matters. You go get fast food what do you say? "Super-Size Please." We were Flying to Florida in one of those cheap "best rate" bargain economy planes that I take all the time. My wife to be, who was a little reluctant to fly, peeked out the tiny window of our plane and saw a Virgin Aircraft taxing on the runway (which must have been three times our size) and said "I think I would feel safer in that plane!". I believed her for I also was feeling a little under sized.
I figured this title would get your attention, so I hope I don't waste this great teaser with a lousy article. I have been focusing lately on something that I believe is very easy for us to overlook in the busyness (or pain) of our everyday lives: and that is the infinite size of God as well as the limited size of us.
A few days ago, I was talking with someone who was at the end of his rope, feeling he was unable to take another step because of the overwhelming weight of a secret addiction. He is weary, afraid, feeling alone, angry and desperate. His pain is real, it was not some fabricated nonsense that only exists in his imagination. He is broken, his soul bent to the ground. How am I to respond to people with such daily brokenness and pain? We'll come back to this a little later.
I see the stars at night and know the heavens stretch beyond my imagination and understand that billions of stars have not yet been discovered. One star, "VY Canis Majoris", is the largest star discovered to date. It is so massive that if the earth's size were represented by the size of a golf ball, Canis Majoris would be the height of Mount Everest in comparison! You could fit 5.44 quadrillion earths inside this star. Bottom line? It is a big, BIG star!
As I marveled at this fact, I was flabbergasted even more by a passage in Psalm 33 that declared where this star came from. "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." (v. 6; emphasis mine) Wow! Canis Majoris, this massive, intensely hot star that is beyond our ability to comprehend, was breathed out of the mouth of God. How many breaths have you taken up to this point in reading this article? Well, it only took one from God to create ALL the heavens. So, next time you look up into the night sky, reflect on the fact that it was by a simple sigh from Almighty God that the stars and galaxies exist as they do.
What does any of this have to do with human brokenness or marriage problems or financial stress or any of the daily junk that crops up in all our lives? It has everything to do with these things because until we get a proper view of God we will never be able to put our circumstances in their proper place. You see, this same God that breathed the heavens into existence is the same God who breathed life into us. Chew on that for a moment...Bend your mind around this. Can you see How Great, how enormous, how utterly splendid our God is?
"The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." (Gen. 2:7)
The same breath that breathed out Canis Majoris breathed life into you and me. How might this reshape how you see the difficult circumstances in your life? Might you begin to realize that whatever you face in life is smaller than whatever God can breathe into you?
So, getting back to this fellow who called me, I knew he needed to be encouraged, to grasp a bigger view of God. I simply began to lead him to a perch where he might gain a new perspective, one that wasn't focused solely on his circumstance and pain. He needed to see things from God's point of view, he needed to bend his mind around the wonderful knowledge of God. He needed to understand that the God of the heavens was right there with him, breathing life and hope into his seemingly impossible, hopeless situation. Like a gigantic wall you can not get over
This is the way God chooses to work in His children. He displays His glory throughout all of creation, inviting us to fall in humble awe before Him for the majesty of His handiwork. And yet, His greater glory seems to come through displaying the power of His grace and mercy in hopeless, painful, broken circumstances that we are incapable of controlling or changing. God whispers to us in our pain and brokenness, "I breathed the heavens into place. Do you think there is anything in your life too hard for me? Lean into me, the Star-Breather, and I will give you what you need in exactly the moment you need it."
I prayed with my hurting friend, asking God to give him strength to keep going. I encouraged him to wait on the Lord, knowing that His view of the situation was perfect, seeing it in its fullness, not just his current point of pain. As we prayed through some of his fears, God renewed his strength and he was able to take another step forward. His faith increased and he saw a glimpse of the bigger picture. We rejoiced in God's faithfulness and we both were reminded that there is nothing too big for our God.
Does size, then, really matter? Only if you keep the proportions in their appropriate places. Life's struggles, disappointments and pain may all be genuinely 'big' problems. But compared to the size of the God who breathes out stars they are quickly put into their place. We are able to keep going because we know that anything we face will always be smaller than the God who holds us securely in His hand. Let us become those who gaze intently on this big, mighty and gracious God whenever life threatens to overwhelm us. I believe if we do this in increasing measure, we will live the lives of faith God desires for us and see the impossible become possible.
Some interesting Facts