There’s a scene in one of my favorite old movies, Joe vs the Volcano, where the main character is on a raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after his ship sank. It’s nighttime and having gone without food or water, he seems on the verge of death. As a huge full moon rises above the horizon, he weakly stands up in awe, raises his hands over his head, and falling to his knees says, “Dear God, whose name I do not know, thank You for my life. I forgot how BIG… thank You, thank You for my life” and then passes out. While only momentary, it was a poignant reminder of our smallness in the context of God’s magnificent creation, of which earth’s moon is only a minor part.
Psalm 95:3-7 echoes that same sentiment:
For the LORD is a great God
And a great King above all gods,
In whose hand are the depths of the earth,
The peaks of the mountains are His also.
The sea is His, for it was He who made it,
And His hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.
I’ve been privileged to experience some of the world’s many wonders. For example, ten years ago I took my family to South Dakota to visit one of the longest caves in the world, where we descended hundreds of feet into the depths of the earth. We saw all kinds of cave formations and when they turned off the lights, you could see nothing at all, just blackness. Living in Colorado, we’ve also had the chance to climb some of the state’s highest peaks. According to the Colorado Geological Survey, the state boasts 58 peaks exceeding 14,000 feet. As for the seas, I crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a ship when I was five years old, and many years later we cruised through the northern Pacific Ocean to Alaska. Ten years after that, I had the chance to snorkel in the Indian Ocean and see all kinds of tropical fish on a coral reef off the island of Mauritius.
Yet these and all my other experiences in nature 
combined barely scratch the surface of God’s awe-inspiring creation. And despite the dwarfing magnificence of the earth and the universe, God cares deeply for each one of us! In the eighth Psalm, King David (who did know God’s name), marveling at the moon and the stars, expressed his utter amazement at God’s concern for us:
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
The whole earth is truly filled with His glory, and He is worthy of our worship. The next time you see a sunrise or sunset, the moon, a flower or tree— take a moment to reflect on the One who made such wonders, yet wants a close relationship with you!
Thanks for that reminder, JB! And I’ll have to watch “Joe vs the Volcano,” which I’ve never seen!