The Things That Matter To God

On any given day, it is a sad reality that much of humanity is preoccupied with where their next meal is going to come from and surviving another day. The world is currently focused on a pandemic. The United States is focused on a presidential election and who will replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. In short, we tend to focus on what is right before our eyes. In fact, when we think about anything other than the present, we are inclined to think about what we refer to as the future (which we tend to define as what's going to happen in the next ten to twenty years). And, on very rare occasions, we allow ourselves the luxury of reminiscing about the past (usually through the lens of sentimentality).

Scripture, however, reveals that God inhabits past, present and future. We are told that God does not view time in the same way that we do - that God is ETERNAL. In other words, God takes the long view. For God, the immediate is not as significant as it is for us. For God, the eighty to ninety years that represents a human lifespan is but a blink of the eye (or even less than that). The psalmist wrote: "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." (Psalm 90:4) In the New Testament, we read: "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." (II Peter 3:8) Talk about a difference in perspective!

Take just a moment to think about this. God has witnessed everything that has happened over the eons of time that have elapsed since the Big Bang. God has witnessed the formation of stars and planets over billions of years and has had a front row seat for the evolution of life on this planet over many millions of years! God has witnessed the birth and death of stars and has seen them sucked into black holes over expanses of time that are incomprehensible to us.

And yet, Jesus reportedly told his disciples that God is aware of the fact that a single sparrow has fallen to the earth! (Matthew 10:29). Scripture tells us that "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." (Psalm 116:15) In other words, this same God who inhabits eternity is also aware of the moment when one of his beloved creatures expires! Even so, we must also fit this understanding into our awareness of the fact that God has also witnessed the deaths of tens of thousands of people in a single battle and the extinction of entire species.

Hence, one is forced to wonder: How much do the things that are of great moment to us matter to God? Does God attach the same weight/importance/significance to events that we do? Are the fires in the Amazon rain forests and California of greater import to God than a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court? Is the rate of the sun's consumption of its hydrogen fuel over billions of years of greater moment to God than those raging wildfires in California? In short, is it possible that the things which we have chosen to focus our attention, time and energy on may not be as important to God as they are to us? Is it possible that God has bigger fish to fry? Is it possible that a single birth or death may be more important than a lifetime of work/experiences?