by Joel Lawler

I was just on Google Maps. It found my location via GPS. There is a red dot showing where I am. On the left side of the map there are buttons. When I click the "+" it zooms in. It will zoom all the way to street view. There's a picture of my house. I can click down the street and it will zoom down the street. When I click the "-"sign, it zooms out. First there is my street, then my neighborhood, then city, then state… I kept clicking until the whole country was in view. The red dot of my location remained. I started to feel rather small. This is a big country we live in. It is one of many countries that make up a big world.

Earth in comparison to other planets is not very big. Our galaxy compared to other galaxies makes our home planet seem even smaller and insignificant.

It is easy to feel small in the midst of this.

I recently watched a television show called Mega Engineering. The focus of the episode that I viewed was a concept building for a 300-floor high-rise self-contained community in Shanghai, China. The project is called Xtopia. Xtopia is an idea to help solve the issue of urban sprawl and lower the environmental impact of population. The building was a monstrous large X. 

This was not only a building but a city within a building. There are houses and neighborhoods. One whole floor was a garden completely for the growth of vegetables and fruits which not only fulfill the needs of building but also of the city. In the design there are commercial floors that resembled malls. In the legs there were sections for industry and production. 

The engineers discussed many of the details. They talked about the materials that the building would be constructed out of. They mentioned features which would combat wind and ground tremor. They also talked about how sunlight would pass through to surrounding buildings and parks. Even though this was a concept, they were pouring over all the different aspects of this project. They did not leave anything to chance.

God, the master engineer, is concerned with details.

Jesus taught - "Your father in heaven knows when those small sparrows fall to the ground. You, beloved, are worth so much more than a flock of sparrows. God knows everything about you, even the number of hairs on your head. So do not fear." (The Voice).

The engineers working on a concept like Xtopia sweat the details. I believe God does even more so. God designed and crafted all of creation. God is so creative he created beings that can create. Everything, past, present and future matters to God.

You matter to God.

God is writing his story. In the process of writing that story he is writing my story and your story. They are parts and pieces to his story. Much like the windows or floor tiles the engineers planned for Xtopia, the moments of our lives are carefully fit together to create something much greater.


We begin to feel insignificant when we realize that there are no quick, easy or simple answers. We cannot comprehend the master blue print. We then turn to things we create that we can understand like religion. Religion often leads us to comparisons. We compare ourselves to others. We look at what they have that we do not. We see the flaws in ourselves and we focus on the flaws of others. We lose all meaning and our place in the larger story because we have isolated ourselves.

God created all things.  He intentionally and carefully created us.  Details of the creation always matter to the creator.

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