Feeling SmallWhen we express size we often use comparisons to do so. Expressions such as "big as whale", "small as ant", or "the size of a breadbox" all communicate size. You can no doubt add a few of your own. I noticed a similar approach during the recent advertising campaign for the "Godzilla" movie. In many larger cities signs could be found on the sides of commercial buildings reading, "he is taller than this building"; on a bus would be "his foot is longer than this bus." All of which was designed to make us so impressed with the overgrown lizard that we would shell out $5.50 at the box office to watch him run amok through New York City. My $5.50 is still in my pocket, as I prefer to feel small naturally as opposed to the computer-generated special-effects version from Hollywood.
But if we can make it a little more personal, what comparisons do we use to determine our size? If you have ever inspected your roses for aphids, or stared at an amoeba through a microscope you no doubt felt quite huge. On the other hand there are situations that tend to make one feel small. Once when I was junior higher I shared a seat on a bus with Jim Braxton, an NFL running back for the Buffalo Bills, to say the least I felt extremely small. I have had similar experiences peering into the Grand Canyon, viewing the Ocean, or looking up at the canopy of an old growth forest, and many others. Such experiences tend to put us back into our place.
The Psalmist David describes such an experience in Psalm 8. The thing that made him feel small was considering the extent of God's creation. He wrote: "When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained: What is man, that thou are mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:3-4) I don't know if David knew that the Moon was 240,000 miles away or that a light year is 6 trillion miles and our galaxy is 100,000 light-years wide but he knew enough to feel small. David was led to recite the following, "Oh Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8:1, 9).
I am convinced that one of the purposes for God's vast creation was to impress us with His creative power as well as His magnificent grace. For if we are but minute specks on a fleck of dust floating in the sea of the cosmos; God must really care if He has sought us as out as objects of His love. And care He does, He cared enough to sacrifice His Son to purchase our redemption. To completely appreciate the largeness of His grace we must appreciate the smallness of ourselves.
When was the last time you felt small in the presence of God? If you never have, you are long overdue. If it has been a long time, it is time. Perhaps this summer would be a great time to seek out some place to experience the awesomeness of God's creation. So pack your lunch and your Bible and head out to be impressed with who God is and what He has done. Seek to reach that point of feeling small, and while you are in that reduced condition offer to your Creator words of praise for His unmeasurable grace.
Jesse Waggoner
Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church
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