A Small Cosmos

How much happier you would be,
how much more of you there would be,
if the hammer of a higher God,
could smash your small cosmos.
~GK Chesterton

Recently a pastor & his wife ministered at the church where I attend. Their messages were each titled differently, but went hand in hand. His: "Intentionally Infinite". Hers: "Intentionally Intimate".

He talked about how God created the universe... with sand & stars immeasurable and with a sun more than 100 times the size of the earth. There were many characteristics of our vast universe that he talked about that day, but what inspired me the most was the reason why He said God created it that way: So we would always remember that God can do ANYTHING. That he created the universe and has all control.

Last week I was at the beach and got to do one of my absolute favorite things ..something I usually only get to do once or twice a year, if I'm luckily. I got to sit on the beach that night, by myself, and listen to the waves and think about God and talk with Him. Nowhere else on the planet do I feel any closer to Him than when I sit and stare at that vast body of water that seems to go on forever and hear those waves crash in perfect rhythm against the shore. It is there that I can partially grasp the full reality of how big He really is. It is there that I also am reminded how small indeed I am, and how that doesn't matter because He cares about me and He is the one in control of everything. It is there that I'm remind of Romans 8:28, and how "..all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

Returning back to the pastor & his wife who spoke.. after he had concluded speaking, she then spoke on how God is intentionally intimate...how sometimes, whether through fault of our own or through just life circumstances happening, he will let us go through trials for a while, because it is often in trials that we draw closer to him and learn from him..and that your trial will not last forever. Her personal testimony she shared involved a rare sickness, which almost everyone who had ever had it had died. She was sick for many years with it, but God provided 2 miraculous instantaneous healings and she is now doing very well.

The book I am reading,"In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day" shares the following:

Too often our prayers revolve around asking God to reduce the odds in our lives. We want everything in our favor. But maybe God wants to stack the odds against us so we can experience a miracle of divine proportions. Maybe faith is trusting God no matter how impossible the odds are. Maybe our impossible situations are opportunities to experience a new dimension of God's glory.

Now I know I have already mentioned Romans 8:28..but verse 29 is also very important:

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son...

So what does it take to make an image? According to an article by Elisabeth Elliot:

Michaelangelo made it sound very simple when he said, "All you have to do is take a block of marble and knock off anything that doesn't look like David." But it takes a hammer and a chisel and a file. There will be hammer blows as God takes upon Himself the shaping of each one of us individuals. So there will be some hammer blows, some very big and recognizable crosses in your life, to change the metaphor. Then there is the chisel, which is painful, chiseling off those sharp corners. Finally there's the file, which is probably everyday in one way or another.

She also goes on to remind that any cross God "sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with loving arms, and weighed with His own hands, to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you."

So..I ask you: What does the universe look like to you? Do you just see your universe.."your small cosmos". Are you in the center of it? Or are remembering that you are a part of God's...and that HE is to be the center?

Your universe may have limited resources, but His doesn't.

His also has a greater plan in mind for your life, a greater one than your finite mind can imagine.

No more tunnel vision. It's time to open our eyes to the big picture.