Another business trip and another chance to get caught up on posts. In the meantime though, flying I was reminded of how what seems to look big in our eyes is small in God’s. Looking at the world from the window of an airplane puts this into perspective. At night, the Port of LA looked like the game Battleship. Taking off from LAX requires you to fly over the ocean for a bit before turning around on a heading to your destination. During the day you can see the waves cresting at Dockweiler beach as you climb from the runway. But the higher you get, the harder it becomes to see the whitecaps. Eventually, you can’t even see waves, only a smooth, glassy ocean.
Likewise, I’ve flown over some of the big fires we’ve had lately and noticed that the further away you are from the fire, the more the violently rising smoke looks like a still cloud that reaches to the ground. Fire too, looks still from a distance.
No matter how big our problems appear to us, like waves crashing over us, they are small in God’s eyes. No matter how hectic our lives feel, we may as well be standing still in God’s eyes. And with that perspective, we can take comfort that God is looking out for us. We need not worry or stress. But “be still and know that [he] is God.” (Psalm 46:10a)
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?…
Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales;
he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust…
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in…
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing…
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
(Isaiah 40:12, 15, 21-22, 26, 28-31)