When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
Psalm 8:3-4
It must have been a clear night in Palestine when David looked up at the sky full of stars and wondered. Humbled by what he saw above (nothing in creation is as humbling as the stars), he wondered at God’s handiwork, the work of his fingers. He wondered at the glory and the greatness of God reflected in the night sky. But mostly, he wondered how a God so big could care about us.
If David only knew the half of it! If David had some grasp of the size of the universe, if he had some notion that there are billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars, how much more amazed he would be!
If you grabbed a handful of sand, you would pick up around 10,000 grains of sand. That’s a lot of grains of sand. Then think about all the sand on all the beaches around the world, and all the sand in all the deserts of our planet. That is one big number! Now think that there are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on our planet. In fact, there are ten times more stars than grains of sand.
When we contemplate the size of our universe, our minds reel. The God who created all of that, with his mere command, is so big. He is, indeed, without any limits whatsoever to his greatness and power. He is the infinite God!
But how can a God so great care for mere humans? How could a God so big even notice those odd creatures living on one tiny planet in one medium-sized galaxy?
God, do you really take notice of me? Are you mindful of me? Do you care about me? The entire Bible shouts “Yes! A thousand times, yes!” In fact, David goes on to say:
Yet you have made him a little lower
than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet.
Psalm 8:5-6
God has bestowed upon us dignity, majesty, glory and honor. God has given us authority over the earth, the animals, the birds, the fish. We bear God’s image. We reflect his glory. He has placed eternity in our hearts. We will live forever.
We mean so much to the infinite God that he sent his own eternal Son to become one of us, so that he could die on a cross and win our salvation. So great is God’s love for us. So great is God’s love for you.
Stand back and wonder!