For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9
My dad was a biology major, it therefore stands to reason that he was probably the most excited I have ever seen him be when in third grade I was learning how to use the microscope and he was able to show me the hidden wonders of the world, revealed through the microscope’s lense. We pulled out his microscope, dusted off the old slides and examined all of them under the microscope. I was hooked! We started looking at other things beside the slides: salt, sugar, hair- oh how the world transformed looking under that lense! I remember when, after examining everything that could possibly be examined we finally stepped back and my eyes readjusting to the real size world around us, again oblivious to the microscopic world that we had just been ensconced in.
I remembered this feeling a few weeks ago sitting in church, I felt a subtle nudge that perhaps I was living life as though looking through that microscope again. Immersed in the close up details of my life, neglecting to pay attention to the rest of the big world going on around me. In my day to day life, with bills that need paid and projects that need worked on, and responsibilities to uphold, it is easy to think that this is the whole of life, that all these minute details are sum of life as a whole- but are they really?
Yes, it is the seemingly inconsequential tasks that fill up the minutes and hours of our days, and therefore our lives- but isn’t it also true that in getting immersed in all the details that we miss the big picture? Scripture reminds us that, “His thoughts are not our thoughts,” and that “His ways are higher than our ways.” They are higher, the bigger, they are better. We get so immersed in the details of our lives that we totally forget the big picture. Yes we were put on this earth to work, do laundry and pay bills. But we were also placed here to love and nurture others, feed the hungry, and share the gospel.
That Sunday I felt the nudge that I had been living too small, too centered on me, myself, I, and right now. God calls us to many small things in this life but He also calls us to many bigger things too. To a life centered on others, not ourselves. We may run a large non profit, we may give someone the nudge that they need to start a bible study that changes yet another person’s life, but if we never look up from our little corner of the world, we will miss the big things going on in the world around us, in which we could yet play a part- if only we look up.
What about you? Have you gotten caught up in life’s grind as well and forgotten that there is a whole big world going on around you? However if you are feeling like there has to be more to life than laundry and dishes I urge you to ask God what His plans are for you, and then to look up from the microscope of your life.