A while back I read an article about the Hubble space telescope and scientists who work with it choosing to take a gamble. It seems that they are very careful about where they point it since its time of usefulness is limited. After much discussion, they decided to roll the dice and take aim at a target of what appeared to be absolute emptiness.
Aware of a section of space where there appeared to be nothing, they chose to see if the telescope could prove them wrong. They took aim, adjusted the lens and were shocked by what they saw. Just beyond that vast field of expanse, they discovered many thousands of universes. Not stars, not planets, but universes many of which were much larger than our own.
While reading this I could not help but smile. It’s amusing to watch these that think they’re so wise discover just how finite their minds really are. Isaiah 40:22 says, “It is He (God) who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers”
Personally, I believe that one reason God created mankind was for his own entertainment. Imagine Him watching millions of people (like grasshoppers) strut around like a bunch of proud peacocks? We think we’re so smart, so wise and so important. Perhaps what we need most is an occasional glimpse of His awesomeness, His infinite wisdom, but most of all His holiness.
It could have been that Isaiah had become a bit proud of himself when God chose to readjust his spiritual halo. In Isaiah chapter 6, this prophet describes a vision given to him by God that he would never forget. He wrote beginning in verse 1,
” … I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.”
I don’t know about you, but that would certainly cause me to reconsider my worthiness. In fact, that is exactly what Isaiah did. He responded:
” 5 .. Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
I believe what he is saying here is, “Now that I have seen His holiness, I have now clearly seen my unholiness for the first time as it really is; pathetic, proud, and putrid!”
I think it’s important every now and then that we get a glimpse of who we really are. We are but a speck in an infinite, limitless expanse of untold numbers of universes. Yet we are specks that were created in the very image of God Almighty with potential to do great things on His behalf. He stepped down from the vastness of the heavens into the filth of this world living among humanity; teaching, healing, and loving. Then he revealed the greatest masterpiece of all time when he unveiled that magnificent picture of love through His death on the cross.
I don’t know about you, from time to time I desperately need to stop and reflect. When I do, I ultimately come to this conclusion: “I may be but a speck … but I am His speck!”