How Big Is God?

Do you ever ask questions and not expect an answer?  Do you ever ask questions wanting an answer, expecting an answer, but still not getting it?

You know our children often ask us, “Are we there yet?”  They ask us how high is the sky or ask us how deep is the ocean?  Those questions actually do have answers even though they may be much larger than a small child could comprehend.  We as adults usually know that an answer is available for our children’s questions, but know explaining the answer to the young inquiring minds will be difficult for them to understand because of their lack of experience and knowledge.

However, when we ask the question “How big is God?”, we really can’t conceive that answer for ourselves.  We have to realize that compared to God, we are the young inquiring minds that lack experience and knowledge.  When we read the Bible it says that God is the Alpha, the Omega, the Beginning, and the End.  How do you measure anything that has no beginning or end?

One of my previous pastors, focused our congregation on praying and realizing we have so often view God as having limits, therefore putting Him in a box. The congregational focus was to meet in small groups and pray that God would reveal Himself outside of the box.  We were to look around us in nature and our every experience to notice where God was.  We learned that so often we miss the greatness of God because we might not be looking.  Our expectation is that God is far away and doesn’t take interest in our daily lives.

I’ve been reflecting again on how big IS God?  I was reminded of a song, “How Big is God?” that encouraged me when I was a child.  It was written by Stuart Hamblen.  (A side note: look Stuart Hamblen up and read his biography, it is a very encouraging life story).  The song lyrics push us to focus on God’s perspective of His greatness.  When we remember that His GREAT LOVE sent Jesus to rescue us as His children and to restore the family relationship He intended from the beginning of creation, we continue to fathom, “How Big is God?”

Song Lyrics:

Though men may strive to go beyond the reach of space

To crawl beyond the distant shining stars

This world’s a room so small within my Master’s house

The open sky’s but a portion of his yard.

Chorus:

How big is God? How big and wide is His vast domain?

To try to tell these lips can only start

He’s big enough to rule His mighty universe

Yet small enough to live within my heart.

As winter chill may cause the tiny seed to fall

To lie asleep till waked by summer’s rain

The heart grown cold will warm and trod with life anew

The Master’s touch will bring the glow again.

Science and the Size of God

Now let me blow your mind of how big God IS!  In my contemplation of this question I became aware of a statistic.  With this statistic I truly feel like the little child that lacks the experience and knowledge to grasp the greatness of God’s greatness.  Remember, I am a science geek.

The electromagnetic spectrum is 0.005 of what exists in the universe.  That includes: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays.  0.005 is five-hundred thousandths…that is a SMALL amount of what exists in the universe.  The light that we can see is visible light and is considered a “smear” within that spectrum.  So, if we are judging God’s bigness on what we can see, we are only seeing a smear, not even a fraction of how big God IS!

I started to think about the scriptures like:

He made darkness His hiding place, and storm clouds a canopy around Him.

Psalm 18:11

He shrouded himself in darkness, in thick rain clouds.

2 Samuel 22:12

There is MORE of what we can’t see, even beyond the electromagnetic spectrum.  Have we unwittingly put God in the box of only what we know or can see?  How big is God?  God is bigger than the universe and bigger than our minds’ can conceive.

I challenge you and me to trust God like our children trust us when we can’t give them the specific answer they are wanting.  We may be asking the wrong question.  The real question may be, “How can I experience you God, in my everyday life in both the big and the small issues?”  This is what my former pastor was challenging us to do.

A minister I listen to exhorts us to know that “God is ABSOLUTELY Good!”  Knowing that God is absolutely good can allow our hearts and minds to be settled that no matter what we see around us, only good comes from God.  Let’s cling to James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”  Also Matthew 7:11, “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who seek him.”

Let’s stop asking as the children do, “Are we there yet?” and just enjoy the ride with God as our Heavenly Father and seek to know him and experience the adventure He has laid out before us.  Remember He said in Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD.  They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope.”