This word is stuck in my mind.  It is a real word and in fact, a very rare word.  Most people use words like largeness, enormity, abundance, vastness, instead of bigness.

After Hurricane Katrina, I made many trips down Beach Blvd. in Hancock County as I worked with my team of case managers, construction coordinators, volunteers, and home owners.  Each time I drove past St. Clare Catholic Church I read their new sign.  It said, “Katrina was big, but God is bigger”.  The grotto holding the Virgin Mary was the only thing standing after the storm washed away the church, but the faith of the remnant left in the area wanted everyone who passed by to know the bigness of God.  I wonder why that was so important to them?  I suspect they wanted to remind all those who had experienced the destruction of this very large and powerful storm to know there is One bigger and more powerful than any storm.  If anyone was struggling with life and/or faith, St. Clare offered a witness to reassure the weary, downtrodden, and homeless. 

In today’s political climate, people on all sides are trying to not only push an agenda, but they are trying to limit their opponents’ ability to make a difference.  Families are struggling as they are furloughed, immigrants are hitting an invisible wall seeking asylum, children are separated from their parents, just to name a few concerns.  It has become a contest of bigness rather than a concerted effort to make this country better, to receive “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, to implement policy and laws that bring about a decline in gun violence, care for our planet, and well, the list could go on and on.  Some days it seems hopeless and I feel hopeless.

And then I think about St. Clare’s post Katrina sign.  And I remember.  God is bigger.   No matter what challenges I face, no matter what challenges our country faces, no matter what challenges our world faces; God is bigger.  In fact, the bigness of God is so vast, so enormous, so great, so large that it is hard to comprehend (even if I too quickly forget).  “My Lord”, God created this planet, the heavens, the stars, the oceans, the mountains, the deserts, and the plains.  God’s love was here before I existed, and it will flow long after I am dead and gone.  God’s love can mend any broken heart, heal wounds, and change the course of a person’s life. God’s bigness brought Jesus Christ to our world so humanity could actually see God’s bigness through his miracles, healings, and teachings.

We humans are often too quick to limit God and God’s bigness.  Some of us are in the habit of referring to God as He – only as He and it limits God’s bigness.  God can be He, but God can also be She.  Or Yahweh.  Or Mother Hen.  Or Jehovah, Adonai, El-Shaddai, Lord, Elohim… we could be here a while if I tried to name all of God’s names.  God is bigger than just a name or two.

I don’t know about you, but I am awfully glad we love and serve a great big God.  No matter how tough life is or what challenges I am facing, I know God is bigger than that situation.  I know God is present with me even if I am struggling to feel God’s presence.   I can rest in the bigness of God.

I hope you have felt joy this day, because some of us have struggled to feel joy today.  Whether you are filled with joy or struggling, I am praying you find a way to rest in the bigness of God.  God IS bigger than anything you are facing.  I know this not because of a sign in a post Katrina world, but because God has worked in my life and through some hard and scary situations, always leading me through.  Write this rare word on your heart because I believe it too is another name for God.

Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.     1 Chronicles 29:11

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.     Psalm 145:3