appropriate smallness

Day 115

Feeling small is a good thing. I wish I recognized more often that I am merely “a hairy little biped on a speck of cosmic dust”. A speaker I heard at a conference described us that way, and it stuck with me as an excellent description of what humans are. It is humbling. I have a hard time feeling proud when I have a correct perspective of me: little, insignificant me.

And to think that the God who created this universe of which I am such a minuscule part cares about me – my head can’t understand that. My words fall flat.

Ways to feel small:

1.Take a look at some galaxies (photographed by the Hubble Telescope). No these aren’t stars – these are galaxies. Makes our little Milky Way seem small . . . and there are billions of galaxies. For more amazing pictures, do a Google image search for “galaxies”. It’s quite stunning.

2. Climb a mountain.

3. Watch a sunset.

4. Watch a sunset on a mountain.

5. Stand at the edge of the ocean. I recommend the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya, but then, I’m just biased.

6. Watch a lightning storm.

7. Read this:

Isaiah 40:12-31 (NAS) Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, And marked off the heavens by the span, And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, And weighed the mountains in a balance And the hills in a pair of scales? . . . ¹⁵ Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. . . ¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. ¹⁸ To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? . . .²¹ Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 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 out like a tent to dwell in. . . .²⁵ “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One. ²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.

There’s an estimated 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the universe, according to NASA. And our God calls them ALL by name.

Wow.

Thank you, Lord.