As I looked out at the vastness of the ocean during the last day of our cruise Amy and I took during our vacation, I had the same feeling that I have had when I stood at the top of a volcano in Hawaii or when I looked out at the majestic Yosemite Valley or those times when I look up at the beauty of the stars on a clear night: “Wow, the world is a BIG place.” I get this sense of overwhelmingness (I just created a word), of feeling very, very small and insignificant compared to the majesty of this world and of God’s creation.
And in the midst of that feeling, I hear the words of Psalm 8 in my head: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”
Because we often spend so much time focused on our own little bubble, on our own wants, needs, concerns, and that of our immediate area, we can be shocked when confronted with the BIGNESS of our world. And in that moment, we might feel insignificant. Unworthy. We might feel very alone, that our life doesn’t really make much of a difference and that we don’t make much of an impact in the grand scheme of it all.
I know that sometimes I feel like that and sometimes that happens in those moments like on the cruise. It fills me with profound sadness and despair. And then I remember the next verse of that psalm, Psalm 8: “Yet you have made them a little lower than the angels, and crowned them with glory and honor.” In the midst of God’s fast and majestic creation, God has blessed us, crafted us in God’s own image, and sent his one and only Son Jesus Christ to save us. In the midst of the vastness of this world, God promises to hear OUR prayer, to walk with US every day, to give us a future with hope, and to be with us till the very end of the age.
And so, that feeling of sadness is replaced with a feeling of joy, of thankfulness, of blessing. I am reminded that I am God’s child, saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, and called to be God’s servant in this great big world we call home. I am reminded that my life does make a difference in the world because I share love with other and that love, like everything else, comes from God.
The same is true for you. You are a child of God. You are loved and forgiven and redeemed and blessed by God. You are a servant of Jesus Christ and you do make a difference in the world. Every day. YOU are not only blessed, YOU ARE A BLESSING. You are blessing to your friends and family, to neighbors and strangers, to your community and to the world at large.
As I write this, I’m not looking at an ocean or standing on the top of a mountain. I’m looking at a parking lot and some trees and houses. Yet, I am reminded that it is a great big wonderful world out there. And, by the grace of God, I get to be a part of it. And so do you.
So I am again reminded of verses from Psalm 8, the first and last of that Psalm: “O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” How majestic indeed. Thanks be to God! Amen.