This week I saw a clip of a recent sermon by Louie Giglio in which he resurrected one of his most powerful illustrations. Around 2004 Louie first used “The Pale Blue Dot” in his famous sermon "Indescribable", which became part of the Passion movement's early conference talks. In it, he displays a photograph taken on Valentines Day, 1990 from the Voyager 1 spacecraft's view of Earth from 4 billion miles away, where our planet appears as a tiny, barely visible pale blue pixel against the vastness of space.
Over the years people have pushed back on Louie, concerned that he might contribute to the low self esteem of a wounded person. “I’m not trying to make you feel small,” he says. “You are small.”
His purpose isn’t to make us feel insignificant. Quite the opposite. Even though we are indescribably small we are indescribably loved by the God who perfectly positioned us on this pixel of a planet. Our smallness doesn't diminish our value to God.
I have always felt small. The tale of the tape measures me at five feet seven and three-quarters inches. (I value every quarter inch) That places me 2 inches below the average American man. Just last week, I felt small last at church standing next to two of my peers, both over six feet tall. They were in conversation with each other, but because I was six inches below their line of sight I’m pretty sure they didn’t notice I was there.
I don’t like it when I am unseen - a small man doing small things. Maybe that’s why I want to do “big things” to be seen as a “big shot.”
Toward the end of the Old Testament storyline, God’s people are released from exile in Babylon to return to rebuild the temple. 70 years after it had been destroyed, apparently there were a few of them who remembered its glory. We are told that the size and grandeur of the replacement temple was smaller and less impressive than the first.
Ezra records, “Many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid.” (Ezra 3:12)
God has used that verse to convict me in this season. Like the old men who had seen the glory of the first temple, I have memories of past years of seeing God do glorious things while I was on the front row of ministry. Big things. Large numbers. Fast growth. Deep impact.
Yet God has me in a season where most of my ministry is unseen. Instead of walking into a church and heading to the pulpit to preach the bible, a lot of Sundays I head to the four-year class to hold a clipboard. Small things, I think, in comparison to the “big things” I used to be responsible for.
The reality is I’ve never done any big things. And, I’ve never done any small things.
Haggai the prophet asked, “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?” (Haggai 2:3)
I have had to confess that's how I have seen many of the assignments from the Lord in this season – as nothing in my eyes. Why would I think that any assignment from the Lord is too small for me? I am small.
Maybe you, like me, have been guilty of what Zechariah calls “despising the day of small things.” But Zechariah makes a promise for all of us despisers of small things. He says, “Whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice.” (Zech 4:10)
Perhaps God put this desire to be part of something bigger in our hearts. In fact, Haggai promised that “the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former”. (Haggai 2:9) He knew big things were coming. Five hundred years later Jesus, full of grace and glory, would step foot into that “small” temple and then become the most glorious replacement for us so that all of us can be a part of the biggest story ever.
This is the profound grace of God - that He entrusts us with assignments not because of our size, but because of His glory. Small doesn't mean insignificant. Small means carefully chosen. Small means intimately designed. Small means perfectly positioned by a God who sees every detail, who values every moment of faithful obedience.
In the grand cosmic perspective of the pale blue dot, we are tiny. But in the expansive heart of God, we are eternally significant. Our smallness is not a limitation, but an invitation. An invitation to trust, to surrender, to believe that even the smallest act done in love can reverberate through eternity. We are small, yes. But we are valued beyond measure.
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