Biggness, Smallness, and the Image of God – Reflections on God as Creator, part 1

Last updated on: July 6, 2011 at 8:00 pm by Kurt Willems

Biggness, Smallness, and the Image of God – Reflections on God as Creator, part 1 2011-07-06T20:00:30-07:00 Kurt Willems

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When we consider how incredibly vast the universe really is, we become confronted by two realities simultaneously: our smallness, and God’s bigness. In comparison to the size of everything that God has caused into existence (my life, my story…your life, your story) is very, very small. On the flip-side, if we consider that the size of our gigantic universe is merely microscopic compared to the size of the Creator of it all, we soon realize that God is very, very big. One of the writers in the book of Psalms wrestled with this dichotomy in the following way:

3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what are mere mortals that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? 5 You have made them a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, 8 the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalm 8.3-9

What is the passage essentially saying? That both the small things and the big things demonstrate the majestic nature of God! From our perspective in our smallness, it makes sense that God has larger more important things to think about in this universe that you or me. But from God’s perspective he thinks the world of you! Of course he loves the whole creation project, which fills us with awe and wonder. Of course he is the one who holds it all together. But within all of his activity throughout the endless reaches of outer space; he longs to know you and interact with you. This mystery ought to make your head hurt. Because the truth of the matter is that we don’t really have mental categories to comprehend this dichotomy of God’s bigness and our smallness. But maybe that is exactly the point.

Maybe we are not designed to fully understand such things, but simply to trust God as our source of life and to live according to what he has made known to us. What we will find time and time again is that he accommodates for our “lack of knowing” to speak to us just as we are; just as he created us to be, a small reflection of him. In His Bigness He Finds Us in the Smallness. Psalm 8 alludes to this idea of reflecting him to the rest of the creation when it states starting in verse 6:

You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, 8 the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Psalm 8.6

What do these few verses in this Psalm have in mind? The climatic moment in Genesis 1 when God created humanity to bear his divine image. We will get to the exact passage in Genesis 1 that is being echoed by Psalm 8 in just a moment, but lets begin by looking at the whole of the first chapter of the Bible.

First thing that we need to keep in mind any time we come to Genesis chapter 1 is its genre. Genesis one is written as an ancient expression of Hebrew poetry and is influenced by ancient understandings of science. It’s written in such a way to express truths about God and his creation project, but now necessarily to dictate how it all happened. Genesis one is less about scientific fact and more about poetically expressing that God is in truth the creator of all things. In other words, God communicated his perfect truth about the fact that he is the loving creator of the universe, while accommodating to the scientific worldview of the ancient world. In God’s bigness, he chose to meet the ancient people in their smallness. He communicated truth in a language they would understand.

He used imperfect common knowledge of an ancient people group, to communicate the perfect message that God: created everything, believes creation to be ‘very good,’ and has given you and I the task of reflecting his image into the world. So, when we come to this famous text we need to keep in the front of our minds that it’s about the WHO of creation and not about the HOW.

And it’s indeed a beautiful piece of Holy Spirit inspired poetry with a rhythm to it.

“And God said Let…”

“And God saw that it was good…”

“And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

“And God said Let…”

“And God saw that it was good…”

“And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.”

But then we get to the 6th day where God creates humanity and instead of everything being “good,” God’s image-bearers make it “Very good!” Maybe a question for us is how are we making God’s world flourish by bearing his image?

MORE TO COME…

Evolution

Previous Post

August 16, 2010

So, What's The Story Anyway? A Brief Intro to Narrative Theology

Next Post

August 24, 2010 Watch This... I Laughed So Hard I Cried!!!!! (Antoine Dodson, Web Sensation)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category (Series) All Out War-Spiritual Warfare (Series) Church Plant Journal (Series) Dear Reader... (Series) Earthquakes...Signs of the Times? (Series) Entering the... Conversation (Series) Evangelical Culture Myths (Series) Everything is Meaningless [Pete Enns] (Series) Evolving Evangelicalism (Series) Hell Yes. Hell No! Who Cares? (Series) Hidden Worldviews (Series) If Evolution is Right, what about Adam? (Series) in less than 300 words (Series) Jesus and Nationalism (Series) Liberating Women for Ministry? (Series) Life-Changing Books (Series) Markers of Church Plant Movement (Series) Nonviolence 101 (Series) Philemon - Reconciliation (Series) Quote to Ponder (Series) Red Letter Dialogues (Series) Resource of the Week (SERIES) Revelation Sermons (Series) Share Something Sundays (Series) Simplicity in the Burbs: $2 a day (Series) The Binding of God [Open Theism] (Series) The Creed: Anabaptist Reflections (Series) Values for Church Leadership (Series) Video to Ponder Anabaptism Animal Advocacy Books Church Ministry Church Planting Community Culture Eschatology Eucharist Evangelical Reject Evolution Fundamentalism Greek Greg Boyd Guest Contributors Hell Holy Spirit Israel/Palestine Kingdom of God Lent Missional N. T. Wright Nationalism New Creation Nonviolence Open Mic Open Theism Parenting Passover Paul Philemon Podcast Politics Restorative Justice Revelation (the book of) Rob Bell Ron Martoia Sermon Shane Claiborne Social Justice Speaking Engagement Spiritual Warfare Spirituality Temple Theology Tim Geddert Tribulation Uncategorized universalism Video Blog Women in Ministry Worship Music Youth Ministry

Select a Month August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 October 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 December 2016 October 2016 August 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was Moses' wife?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Miriam Rachel Leah Zipporah

Support this
Column