Bigger Than Big – Closer Than Close
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
Isaiah 40:22
If creation reveals anything, it’s that God is bigger than big. The theological word is transcendence. He is above and beyond anything and everything in all creation.
Isaiah describes how the Lord sits above the circle of the earth and stretches out the heavens like a curtain. And that’s some curtain! Consider these mind-boggling facts.
Earth is bigger than the planets Mars and Mercury. But it’s significantly smaller than Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, and Jupiter. In fact, Jupiter is 1,321 times larger than Earth. Yet Jupiter is 10 times smaller than the sun, and the sun is a relatively small dwarf star.
Arcturus, an orange giant, is 26 times bigger than the sun and produces 200 times more energy. Antares, a red supergiant, is 10,000 times brighter than the sun.
And we’re not even out of the Milky Way galaxy! The observable universe is estimated to contain 200 billion to two trillion galaxies. All created and sustained by our God.
In his letter to the Colossians, Apostle Paul offers this commentary regarding that. “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…all things have been created through him…He is before all things and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17).
To know that our great God is the creator and sustainer of the universe offers great assurance that He has been and will continue to be in total control. God is bigger than big!
To know that our great God is the creator and sustainer of the universe offers great assurance that He has been and will continue to be in total control. God is bigger than big!
Closer Than Close
Yet that stunning fact can create also create a disconcerting sense of distance. The psalmist wrote of it this way: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:3-4)
Fortunately, there’s a theological counterbalance to God’s transcendence. It’s God’s immanence – that is, His proximity, His nearness, His loving concern.
The fact is, our great God is not only bigger than big – He’s closer than close. “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” (Psalm 145:18)
Psalm 36:5-6 picks up on this thought. I love how it’s rendered by The Message.
God’s love is meteoric,
his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic,
his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness
nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse,
slips through the cracks.
God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him. God is great because no one is too small for him.
God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him. God is great because no one is too small for him.
Bigger than big. Closer than close. This is our great God. This is the One who is in total control – not only of the universe, but of the little world you live in.
PRAYER
Lord, at times I need to be reminded of how big You are. I find myself nervously wondering if everything is under control. Yet, as creator and sustainer of the universe, You are more than able. At other times I feel so very alone…as if I was entirely on my own. Yet, the fact is, You know my name and tenderly call me Your beloved child. I rest in that as well.
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