A hole in the water

Psalm 8

I had a boss in a secular job years ago who reveled in telling us this on a regular basis:

“You want to know how important you are? Go get a bucket of water and fill it. Stick your hands in. Pull your hands out. The hole that’s left in the water is a measure of how important you are around here.”

The thing is, he was right. If you looked just at what I did, and what others around me did (as if human value were only about function), we could have dropped out of the picture one day and someone else would be doing it the same or better the next day.

How much less significant would I seem to myself in the context of the whole of creation, instead of in just one company! But what God says is, ‘Not only do I consider you to have displacement value in that bucket of water, I will lift up what seems most insignificant and give it importance.’

When we acknowledge before God that we feel insignificant in comparison to his glory, and the vastness of all he has created, he points out to us that he has made us for glory, not because of anything intrinsic in us, but because he chooses to love us and to lend us his own goodness and love to share.

Note how the psalm begins and ends: “How majestic is your name.” When, in verses 5-6, the psalm speaks of humans and the great significance we do have in the scheme of things, who is the subject?

Prayer:
Lord, atune me to see that in what seem the most insignificant events, you may be working most powerfully; and in those who feel beaten down and very small, you may be working your most powerful witness in the world. Through Christ. Amen.