Have you ever looked at the stars? The canvas of little specs of lights in the pitch black night. But they aren’t little specs of lights are they? We know that up close, stars are not so small after all. They are really big and really bright!
Over the summer Mike and I went on a cruise with a few friends, one of which was my old camp director, Kathy (lovingly referred to as “Mom” to most of the campers). Most every morning on the cruise I would have biscuits and gravy. I don’t know why I had never had biscuits and gravy before… but my gosh they are good! Back in November Kathy was kind enough to open up her guest room to me for a night, when I unexpectedly ended up in Ohio. I wasn’t having the best day, it was actually a day when I was hanging on to the end of my rope by a thread. The next morning, after taking a nice hot shower I was walking downstairs, and I could smell that breakfast had been made. Kathy was in the kitchen and said “I made something that I know you will love!” My first thought was that she made me crepes (because of our Hungarian heritage) but what do you know… she had made me biscuits and gravy. She had no idea that I had been hoping to have them all week on my work trip… but I was never able to get my hands on any. That little “star”… was really big and really bright! I can’t tell you how loved I felt in those moments.
The more I learn about Jesus, the more I see that that is how He loves us.
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. ”
Psalm 139: 13-16
I think it is easy to read this passage of scripture and kind of gloss over it and halfheartedly know that you were wonderfully and fearfully made, like God is up there in heaven playing with a lump of clay and hoping His creation comes out okay. NO! When David writes intricately woven (in other translations it says “curiously wrought”), he is referring to how a tapestry, or embroidery woven with different threads and colors, is created. The God who placed the stars in the sky and knows every detail of how they are formed, is the same God who carefully knits us together “curiously wrought” in our mother’s womb. I think my favorite part of this passage is how it says “in secret” (commentaries say this refers to in the womb, or as said in the next clause “in the depths of the earth”… basically in a place unseen by the human eye), it is such a comforting thought to me. When I am preparing something for someone “in secret”, I usually put a lot of care and thought into what I am preparing… considering how Jesus would love the person that I am preparing something for, what they would or wouldn’t like…etc. That is how God loves us. God created us with finest care and intricacy, down to the finest detail like one would design and create a beautiful tapestry. That is how much He loves, that He cares about the things that from faraway may look so small…but up close are big and bright like the stars.
As those who follow Christ, that is how we need to love others. We need to do the things that may seem really small and intricate like the stars in the sky, but are really big and bright up close. Like God created us all different and unique, we need to love others differently and uniquely, considering how those we are loving are created.
Never are we working together as perfectly as when we are loving each other and others how Jesus loves us.
Ephesians 4:16 talks about the body of Christ and how God “makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it will help the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy, and growing and full of love.” Never are we working together as perfectly as when we are loving each other and others how Jesus loves us. It’s all about the details… a little more light please.
photo credit: Greg Rakozy
