BITS and PIECES
281st Edition – February 8, 2026
A random collection of news and views compiled by Frank McClelland for the Toronto Free Presbyterian Church.
HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?
We accept that God is Sovereign, and also immense. We tend to put Him in our pockets, bring Him out on Sundays, sing a few hymns to Him, say a few prayers, and put Him back in again until next Sunday. Do we really understand His greatness?
In this modern scientific age, we have all kinds of equipment to probe space – telescopes on Earth, and countless astronomers busily mapping the heavens. Hence, the book of nature is open to us more than at any time in the history of this world.
The ‘National Geographic’ magazine, no friend of Christianity, a few years ago did the impossible. It published a map of the Universe on a piece of paper not much bigger than a tea towel.
However, it contained some astounding information. Our Milky Way galaxy contains “a few hundred billion stars” and “there are at least a hundred billion galaxies” in the Universe.
One of the dimensions they give is that, as far as can be now determined, the Universe measures “150 million light years across.” A light year is one year travelling at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second). Multiply that by 150 to get the size of the presently observable Universe – a staggering, mind-boggling answer.
Why give these numbers? Because God, “who made the stars also” [Genesis 1:16], said to Jeremiah, “Do not I fill heaven and earth” [Jeremiah 23:24]. It is very difficult for us to come to grips with such immense distances. Perhaps this will help.
Imagine that the left corner of the room you are in represents one ‘side’ of the Universe and the right corner the other ‘side.’ Imagine crossing your room – it will take just a few steps and seconds. Now imagine crossing the Universe.
Travelling at rocket speed of 25,000mph – it will take you only three hundred and sixty thousand trillion years! How immense is the God who spake the Universe into existence?
HOW SMALL IS OUR EARTH?
Compared to the Universe our Earth is a mere speck of dust in the ocean of space, and we are specks of dust on the Earth. Isaiah describes us as “Grasshoppers” [Isaiah 40:22].
The nations of the world are spoken of as “a drop of a bucket” [Isaiah 40:15] – that is, when a bucket is emptied of its contents, and turned upside down, there will be a drop adhering to the rim. That is how God sees, not individuals, but nations!
He also sees them as “the small dust of the balance” [Isaiah 40:15]. – that is in the days when flour was measured in a metal balance and emptied. All that was left was the small dust. He further describes “all nations before Him are as nothing” and “less than nothing” [v17].
A friend once said to me that the Earth is so small in relation to the Universe, ‘it is a good job God did not forget where He placed it. But the Lord did not forget, and His eye is over each one of us, each second of every day.
The Lord told Moses that “the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, (the land) from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year” [Deuteronomy 11:12].
WE NEED TO BE HUMBLE
In light of what we have said about the greatness of God and the weakness of man, we need to be humble. Pride, unfortunately, is more prevalent in many people. Their egos compete for the ascendancy.
The Christian is taught not to “glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” [Galatians 6:19]. We need to see what we really are when compared to the Almighty. He is infinite – without limit. We are finite creatures of the dust from which we came, and to dust we shall return. Anything in life we have achieved is from the Lord.
Even our salvation is solely from Him. Paul reminds us. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: It is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” What a blessing to meekly submit to the will of God in our lives.
“Godliness with contentment is great gain” [I Timothy 6:6].
