Part of a Bigger Story
Summer 2019, my family and I took a trip to the Grand Canyon. Although I’ve seen documentaries and pictures of the canyon, nothing could compare with seeing and experiencing it first-hand.
As a Christian, it’s hard for me to imagine how people look at something like the Grand Canyon and not believe in God. Now, I realize that an atheist may look at the world and everything in it—including the Grand Canyon—and just say it was randomly made and we are here by accident.
Yet I love what the astronomer Fred Hoyle wrote about the improbability of life on earth forming by accident. Hoyle wrote that the chances were about the same as those of a tornado blowing through a junkyard and after it passed, revealing that a Boeing 747 had spontaneously assembled.[1] In other words, it just wouldn’t happen!
Visiting places like the Grand Canyon remind me that, although God knows me and loves me, I am part of a much larger story—God’s story. Yet if you’re anything like me, sometimes you forget that—and it’s easy to think that life revolves around you and that you are the star of your own movie. The truth is we are not the star of our own lives; instead we are part of something much larger—we are all supporting characters in God’s story.
This is not to say that we are not important and that our lives don’t matter. Of course they do! Because in every good play or movie, even the most minor character serves an essential purpose to the plot. And the unique role that we each play becomes clear when we listen to God.
The good news is God’s story is our story, and you and I have the chance to invite God each and every day to help shape the story of our lives and become the people He has created us to be.
[1] Holy, Fred, The Intelligent Universe: A New View of Creation and the Universe.
