Bigger Than Big, Part 1
Bigger Than Big, Part 1
Genesis 15: 1 - 15
Romans 1: 19, 20
January 4, 2026
When I was a child, breakfast typically consisted of some form of cereal. The morning ritual was almost always the same. Make the move from the bedroom to the kitchen – a move that at least I could not always assume would be completed safely. I was great at stubbing my toe or not always clearing the doorway. I often hit my shoulder on the way in.
But, after successfully navigating the perilous journey from the bedroom to the kitchen, I would pour a large bowl of cereal, fill it with milk and then put the filled bowl back into the refrigerator. I would then go back, take a shower, get dressed and then I was ready for breakfast.
One of my favorites was Frosted Flakes – by the time I got to them it was an overly sweet soggy mess. But I loved them that way and I ate countless bowls of that mess and usually used the box as my reading material during breakfast.
Perhaps you remember the ad slogan voiced by Tony the Tiger. “They’re great!” I can’t tell you how many times I have heard that slogan. Thurl Ravenscroft was a singer and voice actor. He was the voice that sang, “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.” He also made 50 years of ads about Frosted Flakes all ending with his signature, “They’re great!”
Hmmm, are they really? Are they really “great!”? We use that word “great” in so many different ways. As Pastor Mark Clausen reminds us in his writings, we have the Great Lakes, the Great Plains, classic novels called Great Expectations, and if you catch me outside and ask me how I am doing I will often respond with some form of, “I’m great.”
This morning I want to make the following suggestion. Bombarded by advertisements all claiming to describe the next great something, we have trivialized the word and in doing so, I fear, we trivialize the greatness of God.
Over the next 6 weeks, using Scripture and a book written by Mark Batterson entitled A Million Little Miracles, we are going to spend some time on the greatness, goodness, and nearness of God. Why? Because when God ceases to be overwhelmingly, demonstrably great – greater than everything else in our life – then all too often we settle for a diluted, manageable God that exists only to place of veneer of holy blessing on our preferences and biases.
When the storm hits, and they always do, don’t they? Politics, finances, relationships, employment – when the storms hit then we find out that our preferences and biases are not truly enough to transcend the storm. We blame God, or we decide to not believe in that God that we have created and shrunk into a manageable size. As Batterson says, “in the beginning, God created us in his image. We’ve been creating God in our image ever since.
That is our ancient error. We project our history, our personality, our politics unto God. We think of God in purely human terms. The result is a god – lower case g – that looks like us, thinks like us, and, yes, even votes like us.
Part of us wants a God we can manage. But here is the key: When one attempts to box God in – limiting God to our preferences – then we inevitably box out the God who can transform our very existence. That God, the boxed in God, isn’t big enough to overcome our shortcomings. That God isn’t enough to sustain us in the midst of our pain and suffering. In the embrace of that little, small, self-defined God we inevitably lose faith.”
In our first lesson Abram – not yet Abraham – encounters God in the midst of a dream. God meets Abram in the midst of his pain and suffering. Notice what God does. God takes Abram outside – out of his tent. It is easy, as Batterson reminds us, to skip past this movement from inside the tent to outside the tent.
Abram gets taken outside of the tent – beyond his self-imposed, self-defined world with an 8-foot ceiling - and God tells him to look up into the heavens and count the stars. THAT is how many descendants Abram will have. Abram, move past the world that you have created. Abram, move past your unhappiness with your life as currently experienced. Get outside the tent, get outside of the world with 8-foot ceilings and look up and see what is possible with a truly great God!
Too many of us stay in the tent, content with our 8-foot ceiling, content with the God made in our image.
God took Abram on a two-foot field trip – from inside the tent to outside the tent. God told Abram to look up and count the stars – if he can. And God knew Abram could not. Scientists tell us that there are over 200 hundred sextillion stars in the observable universe – notice please that I said observable universe. In addition, it is estimated that there are 275 million stars coming into existence every single day.
On one level, it had to be an unbelievable comfort to Abram to know that he would have these many descendants. But on a bigger level, to know that the God with whom he was in relationship with spoke ALL OF THIS into existence has to tell you that with THAT God, anything is possible.
Why would we settle for the little gods of our own making? It’s time for a larger perspective, a greater perspective, a perspective that is not boundaried by our preferences. It’s time to open our eyes and let God be truly God.
I don’t want to suggest to anyone that I am a poet or read much poetry, but there are a few pieces that have caught my imagination. One is a segment of a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning entitled Aurora Leigh. I believe Browning captures our willingness to settle, to see only what we want to see.
Earth is crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes of his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pick blackberries.
Do you see, or are you one of those who pick blackberries? How big is your God – 8 feet tall or bigger than the heavens? The miracles of life testify to the majesty of our God. The everyday miracles of our existence are just that – miracles, not the blackberries we settle for. It’s time to get out of the tent and fix our gaze on the miraculous around us.
In a 2019 National Institute of Health journal article, scientists tell us that the average person has 30 trillion red blood cells. Each of those red blood cells contains 260 million proteins called hemoglobin that carry oxygen molecules to the one hundred trillion cells in our bodies. With every heartbeat, six quarts of blood bring that oxygen through 60,000 miles of veins, arteries, and capillaries. 60,000 miles – to be honest, my head cannot even comprehend this!
The average healthy heart will pull this off more than 2 billion times without skipping a beat! Friends, we are fearfully and wonderfully made by a God who spoke all of this into existence. How big is your God? Are you still just plucking blackberries? Are you still in your constructed tent world with your manageable God?
In 1926, in the New York Times article entitled Chemical Value of Human Body is 98 Cent; It’s The Spirit That Counts, it was estimated that all of the chemicals contained in the human body were collectively worth – as the lead tells us – 98 cents.
Hmmm, 98 cents. It’s like God was shopping at the Dollar Store for parts when God called us into existence.
Thankfully, that calculation was redone in a 2023 pharmaceutical journal article. A market valuation of the human body was conducted. At least in 2023 prices, your body contains $7.12 worth of phosphorus and $5.95 worth of potassium. However, your heart is worth $57,000 and your kidneys $91,400. Your DNA is valued at 9 million. According to this article, your most valuable asset? Our bone marrow is worth 23 million!
Total it all up and your physical market value – each and every one of you, is 45,618,575.82. Almost 46 million dollars – each of us. Some maybe a little more, some a little less – sizes do vary. But do you get the point?
We walk around each and every day and do not see the intrinsic worth of those walking around us. On a larger scale, we are so used to our bodies functioning – pumping blood, carrying oxygen that we don’t notice what walking miracles each and every one of us is.
Let me finish with a final quote from Batterson.
“There is a fine line between the mundane and the miraculous. If you see the miraculous as mundane, life becomes a bore. If you learn to discern the miraculous IN the mundane, welcome to wonderland.”
Friends, is your God big enough for you to live in a holy wonderland? Is your God truly great? Amen.