Bigger than Me

More times than I care to admit, I think of God only in terms of my location, my time frame, and my situation. How easy it is to elevate ourselves to the center of the universe, rather than realize what a speck we are in the grand scheme of things (a beloved speck for whom Jesus died, but a speck nevertheless)! Once in a while, I capture a sense of how big God is and how huge His family is, extending not only around the world in my generation, but extending back through time in ALL generations. My vision of God and the way He works constantly needs to be expanded both geographically and historically.

My latest reminder of this came in the form of a CD, Hiding Place, by a group named Selah. On the CD, they record the song By and By (better known in my circle as Trials Dark on Every Hand or When the Morning Comes or Lauren Westbrook's favorite song). Here is what was written by one of the members of Selah in the program notes for the recording on the CD...

In 1948 my grandfather Laban and grandmother Marcella started the mission
station of Nkara-Ewa. This is where Nicol and I grew up in Congo, Africa. So
many people were coming to know Jesus as their Savior that the Belgian
government outlawed baptism for two years. They thought the people were excited
and didn't know what they were doing. My grandparents continued to disciple and
share the gospel during those two years. The recording you're hearing is of my
grandfather in our lake on the first day he was allowed to baptize. The Belgian
government didn't realize how real Jesus was to the Congolese, because on this
day over 1,000 people were baptised. In the background you can hear my
grandmother and the Congolese singing the old hymn "We'll Understand It Better
By and By" which she and my father Jim translated into Kituba.

Reading that...thinking about faithful servants of God moving to Congo years and years ago...imagining the crowd of people eager to be baptized because Jesus was so real to them...hearing their voices...it all lifted my mind yesterday from my miniscule corner of the world and corner of time to realize how huge--gigantic--enormous God is. There literally aren't enough words to describe it.

My favorite line in that old hymn is this: All the saints of our God are gathering home; we will tell the stories of how we've overcome... I always picture sitting around with a bunch of people drinking hot chocolate with peppermint flavoring or some other heavenly drink and sharing our "war stories"..."yeah, I lived during the last days of the Roman empire; and I only had a few days to live after I became a Christian; the Romans fed me to the lions and laughed as I died; but I rejoiced at the opportunity to see my Lord face to face so soon after first hearing of Him"..."I lived in the USA at a time of great prosperity, and Satan tried to use that to make me complacent and focused on earthly things; but I fought him off and eagerly looked forward to heaven; and I turned his tricks around--I used all that prosperity to feed the hungry and share the Gospel with those in other parts of the world who had never even heard about Jesus"..."well, I was one of those who had never heard about Jesus--until a man with skin so white it blinded my eyes came to my country of Congo and told me about Him; and when I was baptized, about 1,000 other people were with me"... Can you imagine??? How incredible that will be!

I know oftentimes here on earth, when we hear other's stories of great victories, it makes us feel like losers, as we compare ourselves to them and judge ourselves to be less. But in heaven, all the insecurity and pride and jealousy and comparison will be stripped away, leaving simple pure rejoicing in the triumphs of every single one of heaven's inhabitants against our old enemy Satan. I can hardly wait!!!