I was recently on a trip to New York City and I was blown away by the skyline. Being from San Diego, I was taken back by all the buildings that are as high as 1,776 feet tall. For point of reference, the highest building in San Diego is only 500 feet tall.
Additionally, the sheer number of high rises is incredible to see, especially at night, as there are over 7,000 buildings that are deemed to be a high rise (i.e., more than 115 feet tall).
Finally, the architectural beauty of the buildings is something to behold. The older buildings are so stately looking in their columns and ornate designs, and the new buildings are amazing feats of engineering, with massive sheets of glass and gravity-defying angles and shapes.
As I reflected on the amount of effort that it has taken to build one of the greatest cities on earth, I was reminded that what God has made is infinitely more impressive than New York City.
In terms of the size of God’s creation, a skyscraper over 1,700 tall is nothing compared to the biggest known star, UY Scuti, which could hold approximately 5 billion of our suns!
While 7,000 high rise buildings seems like a lot, there are estimates that over 100 billion galaxies exist; but who knows exactly, since we don't even know where the universe ends!
In regard to beauty and splendor, what can man build that can compare to the beauty of a sunset, or the tranquility of the moon and stars at night? As for detail, how is it that no two fingerprints or two snowflakes are the same!
As I thought recently about New York City and then how much greater God is as the creator of the universe, I was reminded that God is so much bigger than our problems and challenges.
I’m not trying to imply that the challenges of life are insignificant. For most, life can be incredibly challenging with the loss of loved ones, divorce, difficult relationships, sickness, getting old, wayward children, and unemployment to name just a few. And for some, life can have unimaginable challenges such as going hungry or being abused, kidnapped, raped, trafficked and the list sadly goes on. Those challenges are real and most definitely are imposing, kind of like how the Empire State building felt imposing to me when I looked up at it from the street below.
However, the God that created the whole universe, from massive stars to unique snowflakes, is more than capable to help us in whatever struggles and challenges we face in life. He asks us to bring everything to Him and to pray without ceasing. We don’t have to make an appointment with God to pray, we can never run out of time-slots to pray with God.
He is never overwhelmed or worried about anything we ask, He does not get stressed out. He remembers every one of our prayer’s, no matter how small. Suffice to say, God wants to hear from us and he wants us to unload our problems on him.
Although God often doesn’t answer prayers in the way we may want, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).”
So whatever is causing you worry or stress, remember that as a child of God, we are blessed to have a heavenly Father who is “big” enough to handle any problem or challenge that we have, and He will eventually take care of everything for us, perhaps not fully in this life, but most definitely in Heaven.
- by Brett Sipes, HCS Board Member