In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9
Currently a song called “Such Great Heights” by Iron & Wine is playing over the internet radio station here in my office. The folksy tune meanders into a chorus that says, They will see us waving from such great heights/’Come down now,’ they’ll say.
I’m not sure why, but it makes me think of God, and how somewhere from such great heights He orchestrates the world. I’m sitting here in my office, yet I can still hear the voice of my 6th grade Science teacher, Mr. Hancock, reminding the class that we are, indeed, in motion. In fact we are rotating, here on earth, on an axis at something like a 1,000 MPH. We are revolving around the sun–at least until we somehow discover that we aren’t!–at nearly 70,000 MPH. At these kinds of speeds, well, a lot can go wrong. If we lose control, we may hurtle off into space. Should our trajectory somehow change and land us too close to the sun, this world of ours would melt away like Icarus’ wings.
But seldom do I really find myself worrying about this. Really, until a song like “Such Great Heights” gets my imagination going, I don’t really think about it at all really. Yet day after day, I keep living, through consistent days and nights, on a planet that is not melting.
I used to sing a song growing up that you probably sang too at some point. It said of God that He had the whole world in His hands. I guess somewhere along the way that stuck for me, so much that I don’t even consider it anymore. Though, I think we can all admit it is a pretty big deal–since, you know, all life as we know it depends on the handling of this seemingly flimsy planet of ours.
And what I realize is this: I trust God with big things without a second thought–that there is enough air for humanity’s next breath, that I will wake up after falling asleep, that the earth is okay as it spins and flies about. My trust turns these things into very small things, nary concerns at all.
But then I take small things and make mountains of them. Small things like my finances, my relationships, whether my wife and me will be able to have children. Sure, those are “big” things to me, but in the grand scheme are they really? I mean would a God who created everything and holds everything together, look at my wife’s womb in utter confusion? Can a bank account cause such a God to tremble? Is God feverishly trying to figure out the whole cancer thing and flummoxed that He cannot find a cure?
And the beautiful thing is that while I make big things small and small things big, God doesn’t do the same thing. He cares greatly for my smallest concerns and craves for me to trust Him with it. That is why Jesus touched lepers and spoke of families and finances and love; that is why He came and lived among us. There were bigger and grander things for Him to do–like holding the universe together and all–but because of His great love for us, He cares about every tedious details of our little individual lives. Every minute. Every illness. Every worrisome care.
And through prayer He has given us a way to cast those cares–which we have made mountains of–upon Him, to whom they are merely molehills.
Perhaps today I need to go out and look at the great big sky and feel the God I know holds it all together waving down from such great heights. And perhaps I should, instead of worrying, wave back, resting in the knowledge that the God who made that great big sky is mighty enough to handle my next step.