Thinking too small

When you ask children what they are going to do with their lives they often have big dreams - pop stars or heroic firefighters. As we grow up most of us start to let go of some of our wilder ambitions, decide we are pretty near normal, and get on with whatever it is that we have chosen to do.

Psalm 50 is a bit of an antidote to rationalized grown-up thinking. The verse that always strikes me is the one where God asks ' If I was hungry, do you think I would tell you?" and then goes on to ask whether they think God actually eats the sacrifices which they offer to him.

This de-anthropomorphisation (yep I made that one up but it works) - is something we could do a little more of. It is always fascinating to me that if you ask the same children who dream so big for themselves about God they often come up with a bigger version of us, or their parents, but a person with some sort of super-powers - and it is hard for us not to give them this because allowing God to be as big as God actually is means we have to pay attention and we can't just go around doing our own thing.

The Psalm makes this point too - Who are you to ignore God? - it asks. And that is a good question. God is not by degree a bit bigger than us and therefore able to be in charge. God is not an authority to be challenged or ignored like those neighborhood Stop signs or sneaked around like speed limits (me - never!).

God is God - think about the hugeness of that. Different, in charge and definately aware of all of us, intmitely aware and hurt when we act as if God is a mean baby-sitter rather than source all that we are and can be.