Paul the Apostle states: “They measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (2 Cor. 10:12). In other words, human standards of measurement are away off. The cosmic view of our world helps to realign our thinking, as David noted when he viewed heaven’s lighthouses on the shoreless seas of interstellar space: “When I consider Thy heavens…what is man?” (Ps. 8:3-4).
At the recent Olympics in Nagano, Japan, gold medals, the world’s applause, and million-dollar endorsement contracts went to those who defeated their competition by thousandths of a second. One would not minimize the dedication, skill, and daring of skaters who jump several feet into the air and spin several times while doing it. But it ought to be remembered that the feat was accomplished on a planet which our Lord keeps spinning on its axis at about 1,000 miles per hour. Earth is also travelling around the sun at 66,600 miles per hour, covering 595 million miles around the sun in one year.
But our whole solar system is also hurtling through space. The Milky Way, the flotilla of stars in which we travel, is itself spinning around its center at 558,000 mph. (Even so, it is estimated that it would take our sun about 250 million years to make one circuit.)
Enough to give you a severe case of vertigo! But it doesn’t, of course. People who can’t stand the movement of a boat gently rocking at quayside, fall fast asleep on a bed that is rotating, spinning, and hurtling through space at breakneck speed.
It should be a little humbling at least that, from a hundred miles out in space (a mere baby step), you could not tell the difference between a world-class skier making a record-breaking jump off a mountainside and a flea jumping onto your pet’s fur (a 1/8 in. flea is able to jump 13 in., the equivalent of a 6 ft. man jumping 624 ft. from a standing start!).
Yet for all this, the infinite God takes us very seriously, far more seriously than we take ourselves and others. He did, as David says, visit us. He was made of a woman, partook of flesh and blood, was made like His brethren! He not only came into our Lilliputian world, He came into humanity itself. But more, He lived in poverty, worked in a lowly trade, then lived the life of the homeless (with nowhere to lay His head), and allowed Himself to be belittled by these little creatures of His so that they “esteemed Him as being nothing.”
That, however, is not the end of the story. Instead of blasting the whole planet to a cinder, the Great One by way of the cross has “made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:12-13). So the next time you are tempted to belittle one of His little ones, remember who they really are:
1. The recipients of divine life at the incalculable cost of the death of the Son of God, the greatest price ever paid for anything (Jn. 3:16-17).
2. Members of the royal family of heaven, the future administrators of the universe (1 Cor. 6:2-3; Rev. 22:5).
3. The repositories of every spiritual blessing that heaven can boast (Eph. 1:3).
4. Engaged to the most wonderful Man in the universe, to be the object of His loving attentions forever (Rev. 19:7). Over this story, and this alone, it can be written: “And they lived happily ever after.”
5. The object lessons that God uses to teach the unseen spirit world that He really does know what He is doing (Eph. 3:10).
6. The inheritors of the kingdom. “Fear not, little flock;” said the Good Shepherd, “for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk. 12:32).
7. Confidants of heaven (Eph. 1:9), friends of the God of the Ages, with unlimited access to His throne room.
Little people in the family of God? Not in His eyes! Dare I quote these words? The least of His saints are included in that number who are “the fullness of Him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:23).