God's Tiny Treasures

The psalms continually invite us to “Come and see the works of God” (Ps 66:3) and then generally mention grand events such as creating mountains, turning the Red Sea into dry land so the Israelites could escape from Egypt, and setting the sun in the heavens. Just as wonderful, however, is God’s attention to the smallest details in creation.

How amazing is it that God created humans in such a way that we use 200 muscles to blink our eyes? Or that God saw a need for fruit flies, which are only about 1/8 inch long and have proved to be an ideal species for biological research into genetics? Did you know that there are 17,000 species of lichens and that the wings of the world’s smallest bird, the bee hummingbird, beat 80 times a second?

We don’t have to make a trip to the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls to witness the great works of God. God’s marvels surround us and lie within us, but we often overlook them because too often we equate being small with being unimportant. Yet where would we be without humble honey bees, for example, which pollinate 70% of the crop species that feed the world and are responsible for $30 billion a year in crops? We’d be working a lot harder to feed ourselves, for one thing.

Come and see the works of God: ice crystals and aloe plants, eye lashes and pea gravel, toenails and mustard seeds. Nothing in the universe is unimportant and everything has a purpose, for it all springs from God’s fertile imagination—including, quite amazingly, you and me. Do you see?