Big Deal, Down the Road

I was watching my eight-year-old daughter as we were driving down the freeway one day. Her eyes were busily occupied with all the scenes around her. It took me back to the memory of looking out the car window myself as a kid. Even though I lived in rural Illinois, the world seemed so big when I was looking out the window. Every car, every person, even the corn fields…BIG!

Now when I’m driving, I see lots of cars with little people in them holding hazy objects up to their ears. I used to study the expressions on the faces of people as they would pull up next to me….now I see a shadow out of the corner of my eye. I used to notice big buildings and distinctive landmarks. Now I’m lucky if I notice a speed limit sign or a curb (my SUV needs an alignment, go figure). Weird how I’ve just grown used to my surroundings.

The same is true of my view of God as a kid. He was larger than anyone I could ever imagine. He was somewhere way up high with really humongous ears and eyes. He was pulling the clouds with a string, and He was keeping all the events of the whole world in motion. “He’s got the whole world in His hands…..” was a regular melody inside my head. He was a great big God…..the BIGGEST!!!!

I still believe God is big, but sometimes I allow Him to be too common. I pass Him by as if He were another building or a blurry person in the car next to me. I get used to my surroundings, my way of life, my bubble.

When did this perspective change? And why? I don’t remember….the windows of my mind are blurry on the subject. I think maybe, though, on my journey to have a more personal relationship with Him, instead of Him becoming familiar in an awe-filled way, sometimes I’ve allowed Him to be familiar in a take-for-granted way. Yuck, hate to admit this stuff.

I don’t want to be a kid again. I don’t want to see God as the grand Puppeteer. However, I sincerely pray that my Best Friend, The Savior of my heart and the Lover of my soul would never become just another face to me. I pray that I can love Him as much as He loves me; all the while, remembering that NO ONE can love with that huge kind of love.

HE is my omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent OMNI-Friend. He’s a big deal to me.

"This new plan I'm making with Israel 

isn't going to be written on paper, 

isn't going to be chiseled in stone; 

This time I'm writing out the plan in them, 

carving it on the lining of their hearts. 

I'll be their God, 

they'll be my people. 

They won't go to school to learn about me, 

or buy a book called God in Five Easy Lessons. 

They'll all get to know me firsthand, 

the little and the big, the small and the great. 

They'll get to know me by being kindly forgiven, 

with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean."

Hebrews 8:10-12, The Message