... So, why is it that we like to try and keep Him in a little, teeny, tiny box?
The other day I had the opportunity to watch a video called "How Great Is Our God," a message by Louie Giglio of the Passion Conferences ministries. In the first half of his talk, he discussed four stars - from our sun to Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major (he referred to it as "Canis Major," mostly) - in comparison to our earth. If the Earth were the size of a golf ball, our sun would be 15 feet across - but Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky, would be the size of Mt. Everest! If you placed our little golf-ball Earth at the peak of Everest, it would be swallowed up into insignificance...
And our God created both the Earth and the star, Sirius. Not only that, but He created all the galaxies with all the stars they contain as well. Do you know how the Bible describes how God created them?
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. T hen God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
"Oh, by the way, He also made the stars."
Just a little extra bit of information given by the writer of Genesis... But I think of how it points up the incredible, infinite IMMENSITY of God. He created this planet, which is dwarfed by that huge star, Sirius. He created Sirius, which is overwhelmed by the size of its galaxy. He created that galaxy, which is tiny when compared to the size of the universe... And the universe is as nothing when compared with the size and glory of the God who created it all...
The God who put this in the center of the Whirlpool Galaxy
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... has also done something pretty miraculous on the molecular level. Well... He's done some astounding and incredible stuff even on the sub-atomic level, but at the moment, I'd like to bring to your attention a cool little protein called LAMININ.... Would you like to see a picture of this protein molecule? OK, here you go:
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In Colossians 1, the Apostle Paul describes the supremacy of Christ by saying:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.Well, that's interesting, Kat, quite fascinating - but what's so great about laminin?
Laminin is great - especially when combined with that quote from Colossians - because it's the glue that holds our bodies together. It's one of the many fingerprints that God has left all over the universe for us to discover. It's one of the many pieces of evidence He has placed in Creation to point us to Him. From the unimaginably small workings of sub-atomic particles, all the way through the grandiose hugeness of the universe, God is working and has given us all the information we need to see Him for who He is -
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that [men] are without excuse,
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Now what I want to ask you is WHY we insist on putting this God in a little box? I know I do it all the time, and it's wrong... How often do we say, "Oh, God can't do this...? or "Oh, God doesn't care about that..." or prove by our actions that we don't really believe that He is who He says He is?
I want to remind you that God certainly CAN do whatever He has said - as proof, I give you the universe in all its intricate complexity and design. And God certainly DOES care about us and our lives, because He came down to us to live with us.
Immanuel, "God With Us," squeezed Himself into a small, frail, weak human body, and set aside all that infinite power - because He cared. The vast, immense, glorious, infinite God of Creation permitted Himself to be sacrificed on a bloody, shameful Cross - because He cared. He rose again and ascended into Heaven to intercede for us before His Father's Throne - because He cares. He gave us His Spirit to dwell within us, to give us guidance and power, to comfort us and seal us - because He cares.
He has commanded us to imitate His Creation and proclaim His name and His salvation to all the world - because He cares.
The love God has for us - fallen, rebellious, blasphemous, useless, ruined sinners that we are - equals the vast, incomprehensible immensity of Himself that I tried so poorly to describe above. That love is proclaimed in little love notes all over Creation - in our cells, in the stars, in the food we eat, in the friends we have, in the beauty of the mountains, in the trials we endure, and in the humble work of a worm - or a protein molecule. That love is focused on us and offered to us with the open and generous hand of the all-powerful, gentle, holy God who longs to have us come home to Him.
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
Refrain
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Why don't we - you AND I - stop putting God in a box? He's far bigger than we can ever comprehend, and He works even in the smallest sub-atomic levels we will never discover. But I know He loves us, that He loves me, and I'm going to try to put all my trust in the God whose glory, righteousness and kindness is beyond compare.
