“But how big is He?” she would always ask me. “As big as that tree?”
“Bigger,” I’d say.
“As big as our house?”
“Even bigger,” I’d say.
“As big as…….the whole world?” she’d ask, certain she had backed me into a wall.
“Nnnnope,” I’d answer. “Even bigger than that.”
And every time, my daughter would raise her eyebrows in surprise, the corners of her mouth rising in a little grin as she realized we had ended up where we always do: in the awareness that God is just bigger than anything she could think of.
We had those conversations fairly often when she was younger – in her preschool years, especially, when she went through a phase of wanting to know just how big everything was and she needed a concrete understanding of this God we were always talking about.
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She was struggling recently with something that hit her like a meteor out of a clear blue sky. She repeatedly told me through her tears that she couldn’t do it – this thing she was facing.
“I can’t do it,” she said. “I just can’t.”
And I told her a bigger-kid version of what we have always talked about: that she is stronger than she thinks she is…that she can do more than she thinks she can…because God is bigger than she thinks He is.
I won’t make the claim that that statement was enough to settle her down and send her off with newfound courage, but I will say that those words ministered to me, perhaps, more than to the one for whom they were intended. I’ve been facing giants of my own lately, and I’ve shaken my head and said “I just can’t” a few times myself.
Because my giants are big, and my doubts are strong, and my abilities are not up for the task. I really just can’t.
But the reality is that I can do a lot more than I think I can because my God is bigger than I think He is.
My giants are a lot smaller than I think they are because my God is even bigger.
And my own abilities may be meager, but nothing is impossible with my God.
So friends, I don’t know what particular giants you may be facing today. I don’t know how big they look as their shadows loom over you and the ground shakes under your feet. I don’t know how small you feel in comparison to the task you’re being asked to undertake, but I do know this: You are stronger than you think you are because God is bigger than you think He is.
