Flying home toward Chicago is always a special treat, especially if the plane is routed over Lake Michigan on its way to O’Hare Airport. Night time is especially dramatic with the city looking like an endless sea of twinkling lights.
Loop skyscrapers resemble Lego buildings, except that their silhouettes are all wonderfully familiar. Banking over them in an airplane is better entertainment than flying around Disneyland’s Matterhorn.
Being so far above all the action on the street gives the sensation of being removed from regular life, even though everyone on the plane is still part of it. I often think about God’s perspective from his heavenly throne room, and the Bible tells us exactly what that is. “This is what the Lord says: ‘Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool’.”
He also says, “God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! All the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand.”
In these word pictures God is trying to teach us that he is larger than life, and we are minuscule by comparison. But it’s not necessarily physical size he’s referring to. Instead he’s describing his superiority, power, and sovereignty.
Flying over Chicago, I marveled that I could see the entire city all at one time, but God can see all the cities, villages, and rural areas at once. Not only that, he can observe each person, each face, while I can’t even see one through my plane window. He knows each name and is able to see what each is doing. That even includes those hidden from view in the subway or in the deep sub-basements of Chicago’s skyscrapers.
But there’s more. Scripture says God can also look inside each person from his high throne room, right into their minds. He can see their thoughts. This sounds intimidating until we learn of his intentions:
“No one can measure the depths of [the Lord’s] understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless… Don’t be afraid, for [he is] with you. Don’t be discouraged, for [he is] your God… [He is] the Lord, your Redeemer.”
Though God is far above us, he wants to be intimately near to us, close enough to “hold us up with his righteous right hand.” He wants to “…feed his flock like a shepherd.” He wants to “…carry the lambs in his arms.” And those are just a few of the wonderful reasons why he’s watching us so carefully.
He is very great, and I am exceedingly small. But because of his loving care, that’s just fine by me.
“The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9)
Scriptures from: Isaiah 40, 41, 66 and Luke 5
