He’s big, we’re small – but He sees and loves us – and we need to know that!
God got my attention the other day when I had a very surprising reaction to an old memory. I had been contemplating verse 3 in Psalm 8 that says, “What is man that you are mindful of him”, when my thoughts landed on something that happened a long time ago – and I found myself welling up. This got my attention because as lovely as the memory was, it did not warrant tears!
More years ago than I care to admit, I was doing the word projection for the worship at a large event where a well-known speaker and author was preaching. It was a big, busy occasion, and I was feeling quite alone and nervous about my role: it was an unfamiliar environment and I didn’t know anyone well. However, I was comforted by the fact that it was very unseen, tucked away as I was, off to the side of the stage. Indeed, if you have ever been responsible for word projection, then you will know that it is not exactly a glory role. If you do it well, then no-one will even register that you are there, and it is only if there are any word-related mishaps that the attention turns to you!
Therefore, I hadn’t expected to interact with the guest speaker himself – I wasn’t doing anything specifically for him, and I knew that he would be much in demand elsewhere. However, before the event began, he made a point of coming over to me – to ask my name and thank me for what I was doing. I cannot tell you how much this blessed me – he really didn’t need to do that. Here was someone who I esteemed, who, despite having plenty of other people with rather more significant roles eager to talk to him, had chosen to voice his appreciation of me.
But now years later, I was really quite shocked to find myself feeling emotional as I remembered it. Yes, it had blessed me, but it was a long time ago and it hadn’t caused me to well up at the time – so why was it doing so now?! And then I had one of those lightbulb moments – perhaps the Holy Spirit was trying to get my attention! I think He wanted to stir my spirit, to get my knowing of Psalm 8 verse 3 from my head to my heart. The emotions were revealing a need that I think we all have, to feel noticed and seen, followed by deep inner comfort and strength when we grasp that we are indeed noticed and seen – and by the One who matters the most.
The speaker’s humility and thoughtfulness shone out, and I see now how in that small act of noticing someone who felt insignificant and hidden, he was reflecting the heart of God.
Only, when it comes to God, it is even more incredible that He would be mindful of us.
After all, God is pretty big and He’s got a whole lot going on. I mean He’s got the whole world to oversee and to hold together. (Col 1:17) He’s the Creator of the universe who can hold stars in one hand and set them in their places. (Rev 1:16, Psalm 8:3) He is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient, which is a lot of omni’s! Indeed, it’s probably all a bit too much for me to get my head around – hence my glaring understatement earlier – He’s pretty big!
Mind-blowing isn’t it. Like the Psalmist, I am awestruck that when we consider what He has done and made, He is mindful of us.
Looking down from an aeroplane window mid-flight can help put things in perspective. Individual people are too small to see – and whilst you might be slightly awed by the beauty and grandeur of the land below, it is still only a very small fraction of the earth. We are simply tiny compared to the size of the earth. But the earth is tiny compared to the size of the sun.
Scientists think that you could fit nearly 1 million earths into the sun whilst allowing spaces between because of their spherical shape. Yet the sun is quite tiny compared to some of the bigger stars. The largest stars known could each fit billions of our sun in them! And each of these stars was created by our God – which must make Him unfathomably big and powerful by my reckoning. Yet we are seen, known and loved.
It is mind boggling that God is mindful of humans at all – so small are we when you consider the whole universe. How much more mind boggling is it that He notices each one of us as individuals – no matter how small and insignificant we feel. As Hagar testified in Genesis 16, when God spoke to her in her despair,
“You are the God who sees me.”
The one who flung stars into space knows who I am.
I feel both incredibly tiny and insignificant and yet also wonderfully seen and loved at the same time. We can see how small we are and then appreciate with such wonder just how loved we are.
A guest speaker seeking out the person on word-projection duty to ask their name was an unexpected blessing, but pales in comparison with the wonder of the Creator of the heavens and the earth seeking me out. I’m one of billions, a tiny speck on the canvas of the world, and He already knows my name. And He knows your name too.
Wow! I’m emotional again.