SMALL YET IMPORTANT

"What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?" Ps. 8:4 Do you sometimes find yourself asking a theological question like that? The psalmist asks this logical question after giving serious thought to the vastness of the night sky he observed.
How much more should we ask a similar question?
We know that what is observed in the clearest night sky is merely the edge of the vast universe stretching far beyond the reach or our most powerful telescopes. Isn't it logical to ask: "God, what is this planet" that you are mindful of it? How could our world be important to the Being who created this universe? And if our world now appears so tiny, how does a single human even register on any scale?
I have frequently wondered about this. Psalm 8 raises the question. And holding our new little granddaughter Amara raises the question for me again. She is so lovely and special. Yet so very small and helpless. Is it really possible that the Creator God sees and cares for one so tiny? However in the Creator's eyes, surely the difference between a tiny newborn and someone who is 6'6" and 300 pounds hardly matters. We are all small and helpless (witness Japan's experience with the earthquake and tsunami) in His sight.
How can we believe that there is Someone so powerful that He created the universe and yet He also notices and cares for beings as small and helpless as Amara; or you and me? Maybe it was easier for the psalmist to believe because he had no idea how big the universe is. Or maybe it is easier for us because we know the power of computers to track millions of bits of data.
But when I try to put the two together - the immense and the minuscule - I am so thankful for Jesus. I believe He was and is God. He is the ultimate evidence that the Creator knows and cares about individual humans. For some reason unknown to us, the Creator cares so much for we wayward humans, that He sent Christ to planet earth. Jesus cared enough that He was willing to come. In Christ we are brought back to the warm heart of Christian theology.
I am reminded of the statement attributed to Karl Barth, one of the best known of 20th century theologians. When asked for a central theological statement, he is reported to have replied: "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so."