Children can ask the most interesting questions, which generally arise from a very sincere curiosity. One of the funniest questions I’ve heard was directed to a father by his very young son on the Fourth of July a few years ago. They were walking through a large office building on their way to see the fireworks on the Lake Michigan lakefront in Milwaukee. There was an impressively large American flag hanging in the lobby. Seeing it hanging high above him, the son looked at his father and asked, “Is that a life-size flag?” It made me smile, but it also made me wonder how I would have answered. Questions like that tend to catch you off guard.
The concept of being “big” is certainly subjective, yet it’s interesting to think about. When you are only four years old, virtually everything seems fairly big. As you mature, your perspective changes. Still, some things seem big no matter what your age.
For instance, consider the Grand Canyon. Many of you have been there in person. Some of you have been there with me on one of our Grand Canyon tours. (If you haven’t… what are you waiting for? 😊) No matter how many pictures you may have seen, they don’t come close to seeing the canyon in person. It’s 277 miles long, 4-18 miles wide, and 1 mile deep! That’s a big hole in the ground! It’s equivalent to 900 cubic miles of “dirt” that’s been removed! There’s another canyon in Nepal that is slightly longer than Grand Canyon (308 miles) but more than three times deeper than the Grand Canyon! That’s really, really big!
Mount Everest is certainly big. It’s the world’s highest mountain above sea level–5.5 miles high! That is going upwards. How about the other way? What’s the deepest trench in the world? The Mariana Trench off the coast of Japan. It’s 6.8 miles deep, deeper than Mount Everest is high!
As colossal as these geologic features seem, there’s something very interesting about them. Try to wrap your head around this. If you were to shrink the Earth to the size of an orange (and don’t try this at home), you would not be able to feel any “bumps” from the mountains or divots from the trenches! It would feel very smooth. That’s because of how big the Earth is overall; about 7,917 miles in diameter and 24,901 miles in circumference.
Let’s go bigger. Here’s an interesting exercise. Take a piece of paper (and you can do this at home), turn it sideways, and place one dot at the very far left representing the Earth. Then place another dot 1 inch to the right of it, representing the sun. The 1-inch separation represents 93 million miles, which is how far the Earth is from the sun (our closest star). Next, place another dot somewhere further to the right representing where you think Proxima Centauri is (Earth’s next closest star). Keep in mind that every inch equals another 93 million miles. For example, if you place the third dot 4 inches away from the first dot (the Earth) it would equal a distance of 372 million miles away from us. Where would you place the dot? Four inches away? How about 7? Maybe 9 ½? Here’s the shocker. You would have to get in your car and drive 4.3 miles, then make a “dot” to accurately represent the distance from the Earth to the second closest star! And every inch of those 4.3 miles equals another 93 million miles! That’s incredible! Is your head spinning yet?
Wanna go even bigger? Let’s do it!
How about placing another dot representing the distance from the Earth to the center of our own galaxy? You’d have to travel 25,745 miles (more than driving all the way around the Earth), then create your dot, and every inch of that many miles equals another 93 million miles! That’s crazy. And that’s just to the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. Current rough estimates indicate there are approximately 100-200 billion galaxies in the universe (as far as we can tell).
So, where are we headed with all of this?
Skeptics, and numerous religious people question or outright deny many of the events mentioned in the Bible. “That’s just not possible,” many claim. Here’s the issue. As soon as you accept the first four words in the Bible (“In the beginning God”), you are instantly disqualified from claiming something is impossible! After all, the whole idea of God (especially the God of the Bible) is that He is all-powerful. What is it an all-powerful God can’t do? Seriously.
Now, you may not like what you read in Scripture or believe God doesn’t exist, but that’s a whole “nother” matter. You cannot, however, claim that any of its content is impossible. Furthermore, if everything was comprehensible and explainable, what evidence would there be for God? One of the best ways for God to reveal Himself is through the miraculous. (“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” Romans 1:20)
Some argue that if we’re the only people in the entire universe, why did God make it so big? Think about this. As unbelievably massive as the universe is, people still doubt it qualifies as evidence of His existence. Would a smaller universe have done a better job? I humorously say I think it took all of God’s infinite power to hold Himself back and ONLY make it this big!
Here’s my admonition to anyone who considers themselves to be a Christian. Whatever struggle you are facing, no matter what it is, no matter whether you feel you brought it on yourself or you are just the victim of unfortunate circumstances, God is much, much bigger than your problem. He’s infinitely bigger! It’s not like God is thinking, “I can easily create an entire universe and complex life forms, but helping you find a job, a spouse, or helping fix a broken relationship, that’s a bit beyond my ability. Sorry about that!”
For with God nothing will be impossible. (Luke 1:37)
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
Is anything too hard for the Lord? (Genesis 18:14)
Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too [a]hard for You. (Jeremiah 32:17)
So, to answer this month’s question–God is big enough to handle anything that comes your way and is as close and available as you allow Him to be! The ball is in your court. Are you going to trust Him even if all hope seems lost? That’s when He shine more than ever when we allow Him to work in us to do His will (and often the hardest part – in His timing). That’s the God of the Bible. How big is YOUR God?
