"When I consider...the work of your fingers..."
(design by Gerald Brommer)
God is big. We are small. But only until Jesus finds a way to turn those
around. Thus the first piece crosses astronomy with infancy. The second
piece, too, is on Jesus' "happy exchange" of our death for his life, as Bob
Bertram witnesses to his experience and faith. (Bob was diagnosed with
brain cancer this summer, and has undergone difficult therapy.) We thank
Robin Morgan, who was there to hear them, for introducing us to Bob's
remarks.
C is for
Creator
We'd better approach this question indirectly. Start with his handiwork.
The Rocky Mountains are big, magnificently impressive, but on the face of
the globe mere pimples. And how many millions of such globes would fit into
the sun? Even that gargantuan sun is an average star, a middle class
functionary in one vast galaxy among--how many? (Carl Sagen: don't answer.)
Lord only knows, I'm sure.
R is for
Reduction
Unsurprisingly, we humans do not always have faith to pass this trial. This
is evident in the several ways we deny God's hugeness. We diminish God, cut
God down to our own less daunting size. We shrink God by minimizing God's
gifts or laws or power. The gifts we lessen when we forget what great
miracles they are (the sun! our bodies! wholesome and delightful daily
bread!), or when we slip into thinking that we have these by our working
and not by God's giving. Even common complaining, which implies that God
has been cheap with us, minimizes his gifts. With such thoughts, words and
deeds we reduce God from the liberal Creator he is (and reduce how obliged
we are to him).
O is for
Ordering
All our diminishing of God has been strong and building during the last
200-300 years. It is not coincidence that during that time researchers have
discovered and explained more and more how the universe works: the
mathematical formulae that gravity obeys, the rules of genetics, the
patterned ebbs and flows of ecosystems. Our scientific age has been so
successful in revealing and explaining that our expectations have grown. We
are disappointed that economists and meteorologists cannot predict better;
we are miffed the few times when our physician cannot say what is wrong
with us.
S-S is for
So Small
How Small is God?
Not small, the above says. Yet, how small is a zygote (the first cell, a
fertilized egg, that in nine months is born a human baby)? When Jesus was a
fertile egg, conceived in Mary's virgin womb by the power of the Holy
Spirit, a zygote, how small was God? True, the sending Father, the
Almighty, and the proceeding life-giving Spirit retained their customary
divine bigness.
I is for
Increase
As the Son became tiny enough to be Christ, so vastly will God enlarge our
lives from brief to eternal, which we cannot, multiplying the nation and
increasing its joy. This he accomplishes not from a distance, but in
himself. Talk about taking things personally! How big of God to make
himself so small. No wonder that Mary, contemplating the little Son in her
womb, magnifies the Lord.
N-G is for
Nocturnal Grace
So step outside. "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able
to number them." Recognize the arms-breadth of the One who stretched out
the heavens you see. But hear the nocturnal heavenly voice say, "Fear not;
I bring you good news of great joy." Remember the stretched-out arms on the
cross of the One who became small to enlarge you. And thus like the Magi
let contemplating the stars direct you to the big God become small for you.
S is for
Swap
Bob Bertram is a man who carries himself with dignity. I took many classes
with Bob during seminary and grew to love the theology of the Cross, which
he taught us. I also grew to respect his dignified demeanor that carried
us through some heated discussions that might have devolved into less than
useful arguments without that respectful distance with which he shapes his
classrooms.
