We bought a solar system, complete with eight planets, the sun, a star dome, and Earth’s moon. It sits on the small white desk, next to our printer, at the top of the stairs. Just one click on Amazon Prime and our solar system arrived the next day, neatly boxed with easy assembly instructions. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars rotate slightly faster than Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, just like the real planets in space. When I turn off the lights, a planetarium-style star show illuminates the ceiling. I love it, and I’m fascinated with how delicately balanced and distinctly colored these miniature orbs are.

 

All the grandkids were amused when our battery-powered planets began their synchronized orbit around the big yellow sphere (our sun) with the tiny light bulb inside. Young Christopher’s eyes lit up. Not because he was grasping the wonder of how we all can possibly exist on this small blue and green planet, third from the sun. Nor is he aware of the beauty and balance within this tiny, celestial neighborhood.

 

It was because he liked all the different-sized colorful balls that he can remove from slender metal arms and carry around in his pockets! Sadly, last month we lost Neptune altogether . . . it disappeared underneath the azalea bushes and hasn’t been seen since.

 

I am completely intrigued by the GeoSafari Motorized Solar System. One thing is obvious: this small replica is completely within my grasp. I can lift it from the table and set it on the floor. I can hold its sun in one hand. Earth is not a burden. All the planets fit in my open palm at the same time. I am sovereign, the supreme ruler over this toy. I decide when—and if—I will turn on the stars to light up the playroom ceiling.

 

Ponder this with me. God exists in dimensions we cannot comprehend, in fact, I am only a child in understanding. He is transcendent. Unrivaled in power amidst the pinwheel of galaxies and rose-colored nebulae that spin beyond my gaze in the night sky. Within each atom, within each quark, He has left His mark of ownership.

 

From start to finish, creation is His story to write. And He invites you, He invites me, to share in that beautiful story. A fact so incomprehensible, it’s beyond the farthest star.

 

He holds the universe, every nation, every crazy world ruler, every category-five hurricane that comes our way. In His hands, He holds it all. Gaze up at a full-orbed moon or study the jewel-like delicacy of a spider’s web. God is magnificently involved in His creation. And He is involved with you, with me.

 

He is knowable. He is! He cares what I decide to wear today. He sees the bed I am making. He watches as I sweep the driveway, fold the laundry. He delights that I delight in the growing plants that I rooted and placed in clay pots beneath the kitchen window.

 

So it makes sense that I seek and follow the wisdom He has revealed. It makes sense that I pray about everything. I don’t presume to understand more than I do. I don’t suggest how He should run the universe . . . or my life.

 

Because if I did, I just might lose a planet or two in the azalea bushes.

 

Do you know what I want? I want—moment by moment—to live in wonder, bewildered at His grace. Even when this world seems so out of control, I am under His watchful care, safely bound in the bundle of His love and protection.

 

Take a moment right now to meditate on this psalm, and turn your gaze up and praise!

 

Oh Lord, our Lord, Your majestic name fills the earth!

Your glory is higher than the heavens.

You have taught children and infants to tell of Your strength,

Silencing Your enemies and all who oppose You.

 

When I look at the night sky and see the work of Your fingers,

The moon and the stars You set in place,

What are mere mortals that You should think about them,

Human beings that You should care for them?

 

Yet You made them only a little lower than God,

And crowned them with glory and honor.

You gave them charge of everything You made,

Putting all things under their authority—

the flocks and the herds, and all the wild animals,

the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,

and everything that swims in the ocean currents.

 

Oh Lord, our Lord! Your majestic name fills the earth!

 

Psalm 8