Missing Not One
A few weeks ago, the Twitter account Atheist Forum tweeted, “CHRISTIANITY: Belief that one God created a universe 13.79 billion yrs old, 93 billion light yrs in diameter (1 light yr = approx. 6 trillion miles), consisting of over 200 billion galaxies, each containing ave. of 200 billion stars, only to have a personal relationship with you.”
To that, we say, “Amen.” God did create this universe, and he did create it for that very reason: to have a personal relationship with you.
The Bible opens with the words, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Into nothing, God spoke and, poof, there was something. Throughout the six days of creation, the book of Genesis shows us that God created the plants and animals, the sky and the sea, the land and the water, and, crowning it all, he made man in his own image. Before anything else, God is presented as the creator. The Bible could have started with any number of things. Why is it important that we know God created it all? Because if we miss who created everything, we will miss the entire point for which everything exists. If we don’t recognize God as the creator of all, we have no reason to give allegiance to him, thanks to him, praise to him, or glory to him. The Bible’s opening chapters show us who and what God created so that we can see that, as Paul says in Colossians 1:16, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” Everything in existence is here because God is the creator, it all belongs to him, and it’s all for him.
The Bible tells us it doesn’t take long for God’s good creation to go wrong. Sin enters the world a mere three chapters into the story-line. From there, it’s a downward spiral of sin and sorrow. We feel it. Our sins are many. The sins against us our many. This is where the fact that God is the creator takes on a new and more precious meaning. In the midst of the brokenness, when all hope seems lost, God breaks in and says it will not always be this way. A day is coming when he will re-create this world, restoring it to his original intention. Sin will be wiped away. The Creator will create something new and better out of the ashes of this world.
But we still wonder, “Can God make anything great out of my life?” The gospel’s surprising answer is a resounding, “Yes!” What we need to get from our drab, everyday doubts and fears is a big vision of the big God who created this whole world, and who is re-creating it in the redemption of Christ.
Isaiah 40:12-26 helps us here.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?
14 Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before him,
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18 To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?
19 An idol! A craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.
20 He who is too impoverished for an offering
chooses wood that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
to set up an idol that will not move.
21 Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23 who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25 To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.
We live in a big world far outside our control. But to God, it’s easily manageable. Gather all the waters in the world and it fits in the cup of his hand (v. 12). He measures the heavens with his arm (v. 12). He created it all with his own genius ideas without any help (v. 13), and without any mistakes (v. 14). He carries all the world’s nations around like a child does a bucket of rocks (v. 15-17). He is above it all, greater than it all, greater even than the sum of all it’s wonderful parts (v. 18). Yet we still are prone to make God’s creation into our god (v. 19-20). But God wants us to see the world through his eyes because when we start to see the bigness of his glory, we start to see our lives in a new light. So in verse 21, he asks some questions. “Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?” Through whose eyes are we seeing? It is God who “sits above the circle of the earth” (v. 22). He’s in control of it all. That changes our outlook, as it did for those in Isaiah’s day. They feared the mighty and massive Babylonians. They wondered if God could do anything to help them with the powerful enemy. Isaiah 40 is God’s answer, and a major part of his argument is that he is the Creator of heaven and earth. It’s all in his hands.
Commenting on this passage, Ray Ortlund says this. (You can find it on this amazing Immanuel Worship album, track 4. I highly recommend listening to it, then listen to the song that follows, “Missing Not One”.)
Here we are on tiny Planet Earth. The closest star to us is, of course, the sun. The sun generates energy with the same explosiveness as a hydrogen bomb—its own continuous internal nuclear fission. The surface of the sun is a relatively cool 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, while the center is a toasty 27,000,000 degrees. The diameter of the sun is 870,000 miles, 109 times larger than the earth, and its volume could contain 1,000,000 earths. Its luminosity is equal to four million trillion 100-watt lightbulbs—more than you’ll find even at Home Depot.
Our solar system is inside the galaxy called the Milky Way. And this galaxy we live in is shaped like a spiral, a gigantic pinwheel spinning in the expanse of space, with our solar system rotating around the center once every million years or so. We lie about two-thirds of the way out from the center of the galaxy, in what might be considered the boondocks. The Milky Way is 104,000 light-years across, containing over 100 billion stars. To count them one by one would take us over 3,000 years. And according to the latest probings of the Hubble Space Telescope, there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in God’s universe!
Why did he do that? Because we deeply believe he has forgotten us—or at least he’s forgotten me. He probably loves y’all. But my life? I have fallen through the cracks. He goes through a whole day, never gives me a thought. I deeply believe that, and Isaiah gets up in my face and says, “No. Not one is missing. You’re not missing. You’re not far from his heart. His eye is upon you at all times. God is not too great to notice you; God is too great to overlook you.
And from eternity past, through all of time into eternity future, his eye is upon you, and you, and you, and you. Not one is missing. That is the perfect love of Christ. It does not say the perfect attempt of Christ. He’s good at it. He’s a professional. You can trust him.
Whatever your fears may be, your Creator God is not impotent. He created you, and he can re-create you. In the end, because he’s both Creator and Father Almighty, not one will be missing—not even you.
