We were sitting around in a circle at our little church’s summer mid-week picnic service, balancing the song sheets with our napkins on our knees. My friend, Dar, and I chatted and chuckled about the weather and other friends we’d recently seen. We listened to Leah tune up her guitar while we swatted the gnats and mosquitoes, crumpled up Arby’s sandwich wrappers, slurped the very last of our ice-cold drinks, and got up to add more plastic chairs as others joined.
While heavy trucks and cars without mufflers rumbled past on the street just on the other side of the sidewalk, Pastor Steve said this:
We forget how big God is.
All the street noise went silent in my head. If Pastor would have used a makeshift sign with bright neon lights as a teaching aid, the message would have blinked “Listen up, Gaye! This one’s for you.” It felt like I was the only one sitting in the circle.
In that moment of everyday ordinary, an anything-but ordinary message had my full attention. I felt both encouraged and sad at the same time.
Because, yeah. I forget how big God is.
As pastor’s message reminded us, we start out believing God is big. And strong. Able. Powerful. But as time goes on, it’s easy to make Him smaller. And smaller. Even smaller. He doesn’t “perform” the way we expect or want Him to perform so we get disappointed or discouraged. We want to fit our image of God with what we can understand – trying to make Someone whose greatness and love is divine and beyond our comprehension understandable in human terms. Eventually He gets so small we just slip Him into our pocket. Keeping Him there for a rainy day or as a back-up Plan B.
Do you know what I mean?
It’s hard to trust God for big things when we’ve made Him so small that He fits in our pocket.
After that evening on our church lawn, I knew I needed to get rid of some “stinkin’ thinkin’ that had snuck into a corner of my brain and remember how big God really is. I bet a little refresher would encourage your soul too.
Since we can’t define Him in physical measurements, let’s remember these things …
God counts the stars and names them.
He knows how many hairs are on your head.
(OK. Just pause here for a moment. That’s really, really big, right?)
He created the earth, determining where land and sky and water meet.
He parts seas and raises the dead and walks on water. He takes water at a wedding and turns it into wine. He commands the storms to stop, and they do.
And maybe most important:
His love for you is as high as the heavens are above the earth. And you know how far the east is from the west? That’s how far He’s removed your sins from you. Those are mighty big distances, aren’t they? Unimaginably and unmeasurably … huge.
Now consider this: Your really big God whispers your name. He cares about every single detail of your life. He shows up for you. He loves you unconditionally.
And because God is greater than your mind can conceive and that you can even imagine …
You don’t need to fight your battles. God will.
You don’t have to cry alone. God will soak up your tears.
You. Are. Always. Loved. By a really big God.
Wherever you’re sitting right now, imagine that a message-sign just slipped up in front of you. The handwriting says:
“Listen up! This is for you. Don’t make God small.”
