Teddy Roosevelt’s Children
My memory bank fails me. Perhaps I heard the story of President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt and his children from some old church literature or a pastor’s sermon. I cannot site the source since it was so long ago.
But here’s how the story went. When Teddy’s kids began to act “too big for their breeches,” he waited for a clear night. Then, he marched them outside and ordered, “Now look up.”
After a few minutes, he would say, “OK, you can go back inside now. I think you are back down to size.”
Just gazing at the amazing universe up above us puts a lot of things into perspective, especially our attitudes. The same thing happens when we read Isaiah 40.
There we are reminded that the Chief Architect of the universe originally measured distance with the breadth of His hands (v. 12). He measured whole mountains in His scales and the oceans in the hollow of His hand, like a cook pours just the right amount of salt in his/her palm (v. 12). God calculated how much dirt to use to make dry land.
He put morality only in us, not in animals or trees (v. 14). Evolutionists cannot explain how we went from “goo to you.” Where did we learn right from wrong?
To us, world wars and pandemics are MAJOR. But to God, “nations are as a drop in a bucket” (vv. 15 and 17, NKJV). And verse 15 tells us that nations are like the dust on market scales, too insignificant to figure in the transaction, and islands are “a very little thing.”
And did the ancient prophet know that our earth was round? Yes. Verse 22 tells us that God “sits above the circle of the earth.”
We are tiny to Him. “…Its inhabitants are like grasshoppers” (v. 22). Earthly leaders stand and fall—popular one year, given bad PR another year (vv. 23-24).
Our frailty and brevity are shown in the honest assessment of our shortness on earth in verses 6-8. Peter quotes these lines in I Peter 1:24-25. I wonder if his great Preacher and Mentor, Jesus, used Isaiah 40 for His text when he opened to His disciples the scriptures during and after His resurrection. Peter knew well his temporary state when he spoke in his second epistle of his demise.
And what about idolatry? God begins with verse 25 to show the absolute folly of idol worship considering all the above. An idolater uses part of a tree for practical needs and part of it for a wooden idol. I once heard an interview by a follower of Santería in Cuba, a religion which is an admixture or syncretism of Catholicism and folk religion from West Africa. The man in the interview gave his idol any personality he wanted to give it. The idolater liked brandy, and he said his idol did also. Like the man in Isaiah 44:20, he could not see that he held a lie in his right hand, bowing down to an image he made by himself; a “deceived heart has turned him aside” (NKJV). Isaiah’s ministry shoots down all idolatry!
Now, back to President Teddy Roosevelt’s lesson to his children. He had them to obey Isaiah 40:26: “Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing.”
Wow! He has even named each star, the number of which is beyond any human reckoning. And He knows the number of the hairs of our heads. He sees each sparrow fall to the ground. He knows where each autumn leaf will fall. Surely with the universe and scriptures to teach us, SURELY, we can get back down to size!
P. S. The full story of God's love is not totally reflected in the awesomeness of the universe. We have to look at Jesus Christ and what He accomplished on Calvary to see the full display of God's greatness and love for each of us, even though we are so small. Ralph Carmichael did a great job publishing the song "How Big Is God?" in this YouTube link. It brings to balance to us in the words of the song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGaXnp427zE