Masters Of A Very Small, Insignificant Universe

One of the downsides of mastering our domain by technological advances is that we have lost the awe of God that nature provides. We have sheltered ourselves in our own little world where we get an unrealistic sense of self by being surrounded by man-made things of which we can easily control. I think this is a relatively new issue for humanity, for most of our existence relied on the uncontrolled temper of the weather… mass starvation was just one bad harvest away. Natural predators had to be accounted for. Too little rain or too much rain or too little snow or too much snow or strong winds could ruin everything.

In other words, we were one bad day away from having a very bad year. And our sense of control quickly evaporates when something as natural as rain could make or break your very existence.

If you just spend a night under a star-covered canopy, you can’t help but feel how small we are in the universe. When you are surrounded by nature there is a great sense of relaxation, because all of our man-made distractions no longer pull our focus away from the beauty of which God has surrounded us.

And that’s the way God intended it. Slowly, with indoor plumbing and effective farming and industrial technology and internet connectivity, etc., we have, inch by inch, removed ourselves from the unpredictable world in which we actually live, buffering ourselves in a bubble of false security in which we think we live.

That is why we are so dumbfounded when tsunamis or hurricanes or earthquakes hit… we ask ourselves, what could we have done to control this? How did nature catch us off guard?

The answer? It is supposed to. It is a simple and not-so-subtle reminder that we control so little of what is truly important and God controls so much of which we completely depend upon… that is if we can pull ourselves away from the television and radio and internet and films and DVDs and CDs and sporting events and malls and politics to notice.