Held Together

by Stephen R. Clark

It’s a vast universe we live in. Now and then, videos simulating how truly vast pop up in social media. They start by looking down on a specific location on earth and then zoom out, seemingly to infinity. The earth quickly shrinks to a dot and then can’t be seen at all. Around the edge of the video, stars, planets, and galaxies zip by. The universe is exceedingly vast, and it is filled with created things. Yet the earth is but one tiny dot.

Seeing these videos can make you feel small and insignificant. For many it raises a question about whether or not we are alone in the universe. Is there life on other planets? Are other galaxies inhabited?

But for some, it spawns a sense of reverential awe when contemplating that all of what’s out there was put there just to sustain us! Still, we wonder, are we really that important? Do I really count?

I still exist

In the 1957 movie The Incredible Shrinking Man, the main character, Scott Carey, is exposed to a mysterious mist while boating. He begins to shrink. At one point he’s living in a child’s doll house to avoid being eaten by the housecat. Soon, he’s so small, he can walk out of his cavernous basement through one miniscule square in a screen window.

At the end of the movie, smaller than an ant, Scott moves out into the yard of his home and looks up from between blades of grass to the stars. As the camera pans to the heavens, you hear Scott’s voice declare:

“The universe, worlds beyond number. God’s silver tapestry spread across the night. . . . My fears melted away. And in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something too. To God there is no zero. I still exist!”

The great thing is that we are not alone in our existence. The One who created all that we can see, and beyond — the One who holds it all together — keeps us company: God!

One and the all

Genesis offers us only a microscopic look at God creating. The words “In the beginning” refer primarily to our beginning, the start of our human history. But it’s not the full story of creation. All that exists, all that we can see and cannot see, big and little, He brought into being. God, through Christ, created the vast expanse of space in which He has set the earth.

In Colossians 1:15-17, Paul declares:

He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

From molecules to magnificent vistas of stars and the sun, Jesus is behind it all.

The word all in this passage is important. It truly means all — everything. Planets, stars, sun, moons, galaxies, quarks, atoms, and the rest came into being and continue to exist by the word of God. He spoke them into existence, and He continues overseeing their maintenance.

Awesome but intimate

Given the expansiveness of God’s infinite domain, when He interacts with us on this little blue marble, it should give us pause. For example, God spoke to Moses from a burning bush! The God of the universe and beyond focused His attention on Moses, inhabiting a bush as angelic fire and speaking to a shepherd.

Everything about the encounter is personal and awe-filled, miraculous and mundane. A bush burns, but not up. Moses is curious. He hears his name and answers. Moses recognizes God in the burning bush and covers his face. He listens as God explains his purpose in life.

This is personal and intimate interaction between an expansive God and a miniscule human being. The Creator still communicates with His creation — you! — individually, intimately, insistently.

The fictional shrinking man got it right as he looked up into the heavens. To God, there are no zeros when it comes to us, His most special creation. In the beginning, God crafted the man and woman (us) after His own image (Genesis 1:27; 2:22) and breathed into them (us) the breath of life (2:7). He has not and will not forsake us (Deuteronomy 4:31; Hebrews 13:5).

His workmanship

From now on, when you read Romans 8:28 (“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose”), those two little words “all things” will hold a much bigger meaning.

When studying the amazing stories of the Bible and exploring the sweeping themes, it’s easy to lose sight of the reality that we are part of this big, sprawling story. Yet we are characters as significant to God and His plan as were Moses or Abraham or Sarah or Eve or Joseph. In Ephesians 2:10, Paul declares, just as this world and universe has been created for God’s purposes, we also “are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.”

We are in God’s hands, we are here for His reasons, we are valuable to Him, and His life pulsates through us.