Wonder

 


“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

Last night I had the opportunity to marvel at a cloudless night of stars.  Each of them, they tell me, is a sun, maybe with its own planets circling around it.  There were hundreds if not thousands that I could see, and more beyond that.

And then today I had the opportunity to head to the beach for a little R&R before beginning my final two weeks of work in Nicaragua.  I looked at the sand, just on this beach - knowing there are so many beaches just like it all around the world, and I thought of God’s promises to Abraham… Genesis 22:7 - “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies…”

Looking at the heavens and the stars, and the beach and the sand has me thinking about how small I am, and how in the grand scheme of things that smallness could make me insignificant to God…, and yet I KNOW that I am not.

I know that He knows me. Psalm 139:1-2 - “You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.”

I know that He loves me. Psalm 36:7 - "Your faithful love is priceless, God! Humanity finds refuge in the shadow of your wings."

I know that He considers me His child. Ephesians 1:5-6 - "God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. This was according to his goodwill and plan and to honor his glorious grace that he has given to us freely through the Son whom he loves."

Why God loves us is a mystery to me!  We are often so rude, selfish, unloving and uncaring - but He does… so much so that by sending His son Jesus to live the perfect life and then die a sinner’s death, He has made a way for us to stand in His presence in this life and the next.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” - John 3:16

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