Up until that
point I had never understood what everyone was talking about when they said,
“Yeah, I was there at such and such a place and blah blah blah happened and I
just FELT VERY SMALL.”
Never.
Never in my life
have I ever felt like that.
From those same blah
blah blah situations they would talk about I would usually come away feeling
like I was on top of the world. Or very important to God. Or like I was making
a difference.
And I suppose all
of that was true then. Maybe I was in a really good spot in life.
I AM very
important to God (you all are).
Maybe I was making
a difference (Oh, Lord, I pray so).
But I have never
felt small.
I have walked the
streets of almost every major European city and felt like all eyes were on me.
Not small.
I have stood
beside oceans and seas, both calm and tumultuous, and heard God whisper in that
obvious expanse. God, who created that, was talking to me. So, I didn’t feel
very small.
I have been on
stages of all sizes, but never felt small.
I have made sales
that were thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. No small potatoes.
But then one night
when I was least expecting it….driving through the middle of nowhere, watching
a sunset like most sunsets in this lovely State, seeing the fields and forests
laid out before me, all amber colored in the long shadows, I felt very small.
It had been a
tumultuous couple of weeks, making me wonder a million times what the world was
possibly coming to and where in the world all of it was going to lead, and as I
sat there in the moving car, watching creation in all of its resplendent glory
arrayed before me, I was overwhelmed by the goodness of God.
Such grace. Fields
and fields of corn and wheat just doing their thing. Unaffected by politics, no
care and concern for the thoughts of the masses. They just grow.
A farmer puts a
seed in the ground, and God makes it grow.
Grace.
Or think about
that sunset. Just shimmering away for me to awe at.
Grace.
Or so much bounty
in my refrigerator.
Grace.
And the more I
thought about how the world is going mad and God is still so good; so good to
continue to send rain to grow the plants, so good to continue to produce
incredible sunsets, so good to make the air smell all wonderful and summery, so
good for Him to still be so big and so in charge. Big enough to handle
everything. Big enough to see the world’s condition and deal with it.
Without forgetting
to make one single sunset.
He is so big.
And I am so small.
And that night I
knew it.
He is not affected
by our comings and goings. We do not change his character and his statutes.
He
is eternal. We are temporal. He causes the plants to grow. We do not. Matthew
5:45 says, “He causes the sun to rise on the wicked and the good, and make the
rain fall on the upright and the wrongdoers alike.”
Wherever you stand
on this line of wicked or good, upright or a wrongdoer, he still extends to you
so much common grace. Not because of anything you have done or will ever do. But just because HE IS GRACIOUS.
Because He still
causes all of our plants to grow. No matter what shape the world is in right
now.
I mean, for example.
When I was in 5
Month City I took some seeds and some dirt and some egg cartons.
And I put the seeds in the dirt in the egg
cartons. One week later, I had little plants.
Then we moved to
the Homeland and I put my even bigger little plants in buckets.
And now I have big
plants.
That give me yellow
beans.
And will soon
produce tomatoes.
Why? Because God is
still so very good and so very gracious, even though I am still so very small.
See, in the
Christian world, everything is different. Being small doesn’t mean
insignificant, unimportant, or with no influencing power. Being small is a
relative term; the Lord is simply so big. We have no other option but to be
small.
And that’s good
news. Because it doesn’t change who you are, and it doesn’t change who he is,
it just gives you proper perspective.
So think on his bigness
and his common grace to us all this morning. And bless the name of the Lord for
being still so good to you.
Even though we are all still so very small.
