No Little People
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? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
Psalm 8:3-5
This past summer, the Brink family made our first great Western road trip, and we rented an RV to boot. Though we set out to explore several National Parks, the trip itself (all of us together in close quarters traveling thousands of miles) might have been my favorite part. Still, southern Utah may be my most beloved segment of our country. I feel abundantly alive in those parks, and being able to experience them with my family made it even better.
One morning, we made a special effort to get on the trail early to hike up to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. By my count, it was my fifth time to sit on that soft, red stone and stare in wonder at the indescribable formation. Since I first saw it in college twenty-five years ago, my fascination hasn’t diminished in the least Even though we spent more time up there than many families, it still wasn’t enough. I could have spent the whole morning there, simply mesmerized by its beauty. I don’t know how anyone can see Delicate Arch (among the many natural wonders in our country) and not be moved by awe. How could a person not be grateful! I guess that raises the question(s): Grateful to whom? Amazed by what? Moved toward what end?
This time around, I felt a bit like the disciples did when Jesus calmed the storm. They looked at each other and asked, “Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him” (Mark 4:41). Who is this God who would make something so beautiful? Why would He take the time to do it? Why does it even matter to Him, and why would He want me to see it? The older I get, I’ve moved beyond simply thinking “this is pretty cool” to being overwhelmed that this God would want me to enjoy the work of His hands. Beholding God’s handiwork forces us to recognize both who He is and how much He cares for you and me.
This is exactly the same emotion that the psalmist evokes in Psalm 8, and it is one of the greatest scriptural guides for what it looks like to live in the world with a proper view of God and ourselves. At the start of v. 3, he says “when.” It’s a normal, human occurrence to take pause when we see beauty. It forces contemplation. When … it’s going to happen.
When we see God’s handiwork (in the context of Psalm 8, the psalmist is gazing into the night sky), we should be overcome by what He has done and then respond with language similar to the refrain at the beginning and end of the Psalm: “O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth.” This might be one of the most repeated commands throughout Scripture - to recognize and remember what God has done, and to praise Him accordingly.
As He breaks into praise, the psalmist is baffled that this great God cares for him, personally. If He made the stars in the sky, God must have power over them all, yet He still finds time to care for individuals. How could this be! How could a transcendent God be immanent, even intimate? How could He be big enough to fashion all of this and still be small enough to care for me? As believers, we understand that this is even more remarkable that the Maker of all things visible and invisible would love people as sinful as we are. I can’t even begin to understand this. But even perfect Adam would have been blown away by the reality that God would value him, and we’ll continue to be amazed by it in the New Jerusalem. It’s not an amazing concept just because of our sin. It’s beyond comprehension that an infinite God with no beginning or end would specifically care for that which is finite.
Believers need to habituate this response – pausing to offer praise to the One who made the beauty around us. And, this must lead us immediately to marvel at the incomprehensible truth that God would care for us as He does. What is man that you are mindful of him! And for those of us who work with children (especially in education), we need to embrace every opportunity to not just talk about the wonder around us but also model for our students the correct posture of praise and grateful recognition of the value He has placed upon us. Christian educators should look for every instance they can find to talk about the greatness of God and seize the opportunity to recognize that this very same God who revealed Himself in this way deeply cares for us.
Not only does He care for humans, God has assigned us with great value and responsibility. He has made people in His image, designing us with moral, spiritual, relational, rational, and creative capacity. In The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis suggests that this eternal reality of being created in God’s image means that there is no such thing as a “mere mortal.” We have profound value, and this is one of the truths that should most dominate the Christian classroom. Our students need to be reminded on a daily basis of their worth and dignity and be trained to see it in the context of the greatness of the One who chooses to care for them.
It’s easy to sit underneath a star-filled sky or on the rim of the Grand Canyon and marvel at God’s handiwork, and certainly we need to do everything we can when beholding something beautiful. But, we also need to recognize the hand of God with “lesser” things too. Yes, God fashioned together the granite that constitutes El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, but He also made the pebbles that we find on the playground. We need to draw our attention to God’s design even there. Yes, we need to do everything we can to nurture awe and wonder, but we also need to work tirelessly to recognize God’s greatness and our personal value in the day-to-day, mundane aspects of life. For, this is the training ground for equipping our students to live lives of faithfulness in the ordinary goings-and-comings of life.
In his collection of sermons on the profound significance of all mankind entitled No Little People, Francis A. Schaeffer says “No man has stood in a great place who has not, by the grace of God, stood in lesser ones before. If a person cannot stand faithful in a lesser place, how will he be able to stand in the center of his own culture in front of the twentieth century’s own kind of fiery furnace? To be a man or woman of faith requires training.” I want my children and students to “stand faithful” in all areas of life, and that starts by recognizing who God is and who we are in light of His greatness. We have the profound task and opportunity to shape their tendencies by the way we model a Psalm 8 approach to what God has done.
Let me encourage you to “pause twice” when you recognize anything amazing with your students. Pause and contemplate how wonderful the God is who called it into being, but also pause like Psalm 8 does to reflect on this same God also caring for each of us. Pause twice, but not just there … even with the simpler, more unexplained areas where we can also find truth, beauty, and goodness. For, there are no little people; no little places; no little moments. O Lord, Our Lord. How Majestic is your name in all the earth.
