Louie Giglio’s Sermon/video “Indescribable”, stamped an indelible mark in my aging memory. His stunning pictures of the stars, galaxies and descriptions of space overwhelmed me and still does to this day. The earth, where we live, is a small planet revolving around a star called the sun which has a volume 1.3 million times that of the earth. There are stars a million times brighter than the sun. There are about a hundred billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, which is one hundred thousand light years across. (A light year is six million, million miles.) The sun travels about 155 miles per second, and so it would take two hundred million years to make a single revolution on its orbit in the Milky Way. There are millions of other galaxies besides ours.
Just to think He counts the stars and calls them all by name. How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension! (Psalms 147: 4-5, NLT2) Imagine looking over the unique distinctives and then assigning a corresponding name to each puppy, sheep, rabbit or a rancher’s cattle. God’s Omniscience, Omnipotence and Omnipresence evident in all this makes me feel like one molecule on this planet earth. No wonder David wrote what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him ((Psalm 8:4, ESV)? Psalm 139:6 reads Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand (NLT2)! I have asked that very question MANY times. It seems like foolish arrogance to imagine we can impress this God with our perfect church attendance or daily devotions, the large donations we give, or the hours we work to serve others.
Now take time to ponder this. In Psalm 147, notice the words before and after the Psalmist wrote the words of God’s unfathomable work in the universe.
Psalm 147:3-6 (NLT2) 3 He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds. 4 He counts the stars and calls them all by name. 5 How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension! 6 The LORD supports the humble, but he brings the wicked down into the dust.
What might it say to you when you consider how the most powerful, knowledgeable, and everywhere present God–King of all Kings—would do that kind of thing; care enough about healing a brokenhearted and wounded individual or lovingly support a humble common man or woman? President Biden could care less about a person like you or me who has vastly different core values or worldview but my God, who created and named every star, not only knows my name but cares about me, my wife and family as well as you and your family. He cared even while we were still breaking His Holy laws!
These reflections on the greatness, grace and mercy of our God inspire much needed hope today in the midst of the disheartening news on the political, economic and international scenes. I urge you to take a chunk of quiet time to let these thoughts soak into your mind and inner being. This morning, before writing this as I pondered this concept in my heart His presence so filled my inner being that I wept as I worshipped and felt so filled with hope for tomorrow. I pray you too will encounter His powerful presence as you mediate on His greatness as well as His love for you. It is our Almighty God’s desire for each of us to rest in who He is and His amazing love for each of us.
This is powerful, knowing God sees and knows us, loves us and is Ever present. We are a mere spec, but HE knows us! THANKS for the reminder!
A song I sung when I was young.
How big is God
Though man may strive to go beyond the reach of space,
Ti crawl beyond the distant shim’ring stars
This world’s a room so small within ny Master’s house
The open sky’s but a portion of His yard
How big is God
How big and wide His vast domain
To try to tell these lips can only start
He’s big enough to rule His mighty universe yet small enough to live within my heart ❤️