When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
Psalm 8:3-4 (NIV)
Are we attempted to be God and control every element in our lives? Or micromanage everything else? Or playing God in the instance of creating babies from three people? Or shouting at each other, or our kids and family members all in the name of love–just to be heard and get our own way? I find it interesting when someone says “Are you following Jesus or are you making Jesus follow you?” Have we just become a generation where it’s me-first and then everyone, and if I have time and I can be bothered, eventually I’ll think about God and pray to Him?
But if I think about it, God went all out for us.
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
Psalm 8:3-4 (MSG)
Perhaps when I look up to the skies and complain because well, it’s a clear night and not a cloud can be seen–therefore it’s going to be a very very painfully cold night… Have I taken things for granted and not appreciate all that He has given us? Why does He bother with us? I wouldn’t bother with someone like me. Why does he bother when I am not bothered? In a normal interpersonal relationship, if someone isn’t bothered–the other party wouldn’t be bothered either (“The Real Housewives of [enter location here]” give evidence of this! The countless amount of arguments because one person isn’t going to fix things, which leads to the other person not fixing things, only to escalate all because things weren’t reconciled…!) but this isn’t the case here. It’s so, what’s the word… Unconditional.
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you set in place—
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
Psalm 8:3-4 (NLT)
We are only mere mortals. Mortals being that our bodies will fail and eventually we will die. We won’t last forever. But yet he still cares for us. He cared enough to notice it was not good for Adam to be alone, so fashioned Eve out of his rib. He cared enough to provide a ram for Abraham when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac. He cared enough for his people in the desert to provide manna and quail. He cares enough for you and me today, in providing a roof over our heads.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Psalm 8:3-4 (ESV)
Well it’s exactly that isn’t it. As the Psalmist says at the start of Psalm 8, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” The Lord our God is majestic. To know that He created everything on this universe, He created you and me. He is incredibly mindful of you and me. He is a tremendously big God, yet he still makes time for us. He stooped down, lowering himself to die for a wretched being like me.
Recently at school, we were challenged in Theology class with the question: “What is the Kingdom of God?” and as each of us students tried to figure it out, racking our brains and being fearful of our lecturer and the interrogative way he was phrasing that question, causing us to doubt ourselves and our answers… We eventually figured out (while being prompted by his clues), that the Kingdom of God – shows that God is King, and He has a kingdom, a dominion, He is a ruler over all and He reigns. There’s more to say from this lecture. But my point is, God is so so big that we simply cannot define him in one lecture, or even here in this blog post.
But what I want you to do, reader, is to dwell on this:
Reflect and remember those moments when you had once been so mesmerised by God’s creation, presence and love. It is so easy to forget what he has done, especially when life gets the most of us. Let us stop in our busy lives and be still, soaking in God’s words and presence.
This past Sunday, Pastor Bert preached on “Big God” there’s more to this topic and this blog is just the tip of the iceberg, you can also listen to the sermon podcast on this page here.