Who Am I?

“As I look into the heavens… I consider… what is man, that you are mindful of him.”
—Psalm 8: 3-4
“What is man that you are mindful of him?” —Hebrews 2: 6

Psalm 8 develops around a feeling that many of us have had. Close your eyes and remember a time when you were far from artificial light. Remember what it was like to gaze up into the stars. On a lovely dark night, the sky almost seems on fire with the diamond-like sparkle of countless stars. When I have taken the time to really see the stars,  my eyes begin to fill with tears. I am overcome with the sheer beauty of it and then I begin to think of the vastness of God’s creation. In the midst of something so beautiful and so limitless I always begin to wonder how the creator of the heavens could care about me. I seem so small and I know how far I have drifted from his will for me. And yet Scripture tells me he not only knows me, and even counts the hairs on my head, but that he loves me. Such thoughts are truly too great for my understanding.

It is easy to imagine a young David keeping watch over his flocks by night thinking the same thoughts. He looks at the quiet beauty of the sky and is in wonder that God would care for him and beyond that, give him authority over a flock of sheep, and eventually give him authority over God’s very own flock, God’s people Israel.

And that is perhaps the greatest mystery — that God would choose one of his creatures to bear his image — to be like him — and to have dominion over his creation. One wonders why God would choose human beings, why would he choose the youngest son of Jesse like David, why choose a stiff-necked people like Israel, and why would he ever love someone like me? We get a hint in verse 2 of Psalm 8. God chooses “the mouth of babes and infants to still his enemies and to reveal his strength.” “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that, ‘let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” —1 Corinthians 1:26-31 The reason he blesses us with so many gifts is because of his love, mercy, and grace, not because we earned it or deserve it.

It is his desire that we remember he is the creator. “It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are only his people and the sheep of his pasture.” (BCP) He gave us the night sky to remind us just how beautiful he is and just how small we are. He gave us eyes to see this beauty and to receive his love letter written to us in his creation. Take time this evening to go outside and look beyond the stars to find a creator who loves you.

†Bishop Mark