Feeling Small

I just returned home from vacation. My wife, daughter, and a classmate of my daughters, spent a wonderful week at Cape San Blas on the coast of Florida. It was an enjoyable time in spite of the heat.

In fact it was hotter at Cape San Blas than a pair of jumper cables at a red-neck funeral procession. Yet, in spite of the heat the beach was wonderful, and while I looked forward to coming home to Monticello, I hated to leave the beach.

One evening I walked down to the beach by myself. The night was clear and the sky was full of stars. Not only did I walk down to the beach alone, I discovered upon my arrival at the beach that no one else was on the beach but me.
It was just me, the beach, the stars, and the ocean.

Now, I’m a pretty big guy. I stand around 6’4” and let’s just say the doctor always tells me I need to loose a pound or 20. Yet, as I stood alone on the beach looking at the stars and listening to the crashing of the waves I felt really small.

Surrounded by the vastness of God’s creation I realized in a very real and tangible that I am but a small part of that creation. At the same time I was also reminded of the glory and grandeur of God.

During last year’s Community Christmas Cantata I was called upon to sing a solo. The lyrics of the song I sang included the line, “Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name?”

Standing on the beach I thought about those words yet again, and then I remembered what Jesus said about the hairs of our head being numbered by God and the whole thing was just mind-boggling.
As I have contemplated that moment on the beach in the last week I have come to the conclusion that the love of God is proportional to the grandeur of God’s creation. In other words, I cannot create an ocean, a beach, or a star-filled sky, but God did.

I can create some things but not as God creates. So it is with love, while I can love I can’t love as God loves. Ultimately my love is limited by limitations as a human being, but the love of God is limitless and is even beyond human comprehension.

I suppose that’s what makes me me and God God.