God is Big but Not Distant
Is. 40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
Is. 40:23 who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
Is. 40:24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
Is. 40:25 To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Is. 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.
Is. 40:27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Is. 40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
Is. 40:29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
It is precisely because God is so huge and vast and beyond all comprehension that He is able to know each and every single one of us specifically. That is exactly how He knows all of our days and all of our thoughts.
One time we had dinner guests over and we all greeted them as they left and saw them out the door, waved from the porch, said goodnight, and closed the door. We settled into our living room and counted the kids. 1, 2, 3, 4… Where is Sissy!?
Our first thought was that we left her out front when we closed and locked the door. “Find your sister!” I told the boys. We scrambled and called for her and had about 3 hours (ok, it was really about 7 seconds) of panic before we found her sitting in her corner of her room playing quietly by herself.
She was fine. She didn’t even know we were looking for her.
My panic came from my smallness and my well-trained ability to trust in my muscular imagination. I had to go through two rooms, up a flight of stairs, down a hallway, through a door, and into a corner to see where she was. I’m a small man in a big house.
God doesn’t faint or become tired. God doesn’t have to rush around the universe to find us, because He’s already there. God is caring for us more than we know. He’s calling out to us to pay attention and to see it as He does it.
He wants to strengthen us in every way that leads to and leans on Him. Watch for Him and He’ll do it!
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