From Psalm 84:
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
Gazing up at the vastness of the night sky often gives us a sense of our insignificance. The converse is also true. More than one astronaut has commented on the experience of gazing upon the Earth from outer space and the resulting sense of insignificance. The Psalmist goes farther and says:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
To me it is interesting to note that this experience of insignificance is universal. That is, even those who do not believe in any god(s) will also speak of this feeling of insignificance. However, they will use it to claim that this shows how silly are our pretentions to be of any importance in the Universe. For instance Carl Sagan has said:
Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.
One French philosopher who taught at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago mused:
On a cosmic scale, our life is insignificant, yet this brief period when we appear in the world is the time in which all meaningful questions arise. – Paul Ricoeur
I like that last quote, “… yet this brief period … is the time in which all meaningful questions arise.” In comparison to the Universe, in comparison to eternity, we really are insignificant. It is not surprise, then, that the Psalmist turns to God and asks who we are that He should even care about us. I am convinced that this feeling of insignificance is a good thing.
You see, as Dr. Ricoeur pointed out, we only have a very brief period of time to ask our meaningful questions. The insignificance we feel when we look at the Universe is what prompts us to ask those questions, prompts us to look up and wonder whether the Universe has any meaning, whether there is a God. This is what Saint Paul wrote about in the Book of Romans:
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
One of the most merciful things God could have done for us is to create us with that inner experience of insignificance. It is that experience that calls us to consider, calls us to think, calls us to reach out. And, in that experience of insignificance and wonder is God’s grace to the world, and to each and every one of us. For, that comprehension of insignificance helps keep us in our proper place, and leaves us open to a revelation of the God who is the Creator of what has driven us to that comprehension of insignificance.
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