Astronomers tell us that our sun is so large that you could put a million earths inside of it like BB’s inside of a basketball! Yet there are stars in the universe that are so huge you could put a million of our suns inside of them! In fact they are so enormous that our sun would only seem like a single match burning at night on a vast prairie in comparison.
At times, when I look at the world around me, I am staggered by the sheer enormity of all that is happening apart from the gospel. What can be so disheartening is the fact that the vast majority of what is happening in the world around us has absolutely nothing to do with the truth or God’s purposes in the earth. I am sometimes staggered when I contemplate the billions of "worldlings" who go about their business each day consumed with the cares of this life. When I think of all the things that mankind has invested so much of their time and energy and wealth into and know that it is futile apart from God I am bewildered. I think of the billions of individual plans and passions and dreams of so many who don’t have the slightest clue about what is really going on I shake my head in dismay. These considerations have brought me to the same conclusion as Solomon when he said, “Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. All is vanity!”
When I consider everything under the sun that man has accomplished and schemed for and fought for and died for and realize that almost all of it will mean nothing in the end I am stunned. The sheer variety and complexity of worldly pursuits and priorities can almost seem to overwhelm the simple concept of the gospel. I think of all the worldly values we exalt, the “political & cultural correctness” we embrace, the shallow people we idolize, the leaders we choose to lead us, the abundance of “things” we strive to possess and the selfish agendas we obsessively pursue and I am reminded of the words of Jesus when He put things into perspective, “That which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God”. I also consider the soul‑searching question He asks us all, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? But the world goes about their business each day oblivious to reality, with the truth getting trampled in the streets or lost in the midst of the sheer crush of human activities and interests. How marginal and insignificant the people of God and the simple message of salvation often seems to a modern world which laughs them to scorn and largely writes them off as irrelevant, antiquated and insignificant?
Yes, we are but infinitesimal specks of dust in comparison to the infinite vastness of this universe. Yet, I am profoundly humbled when I realize that “God has chosen the foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise…and the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are, and the insignificant things and the things which are despised to bring to nothing the things that are that no flesh should glory in His presence.” (I Cor.1:27-29)
I am deeply moved when I realize that each of His saints plays a significant role in His redemptive plan both now and in the new heavens and new earth which will soon come. There remains a faithful remnant of believers in the midst of all of the darkness and clutter who cling to the truth, who stand for the truth and are ready to lay down their lives for the truth no matter how insignificant or irrelevant they may seem to the eyes of the world. They are in this world but not of this world. They are those who will overcome, “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” They know their home is not on this earth. They know they are simply pilgrims passing through and they know that their treasure is not on earth but in heaven and the world to come. They are like that lone match burning on a vast prairie at night who are still holding forth the light of the world and refuse to let the darkness quench their flame.