Feeling small

Spinning the globe, sitting on my desk just a few feet away, I feel small. I gain a new perspective. Yes, my home province, Saskatchewan, is bigger than many countries, but it is also just one of many places on this planet.

Most people, the other 6.99 billion or so, who live on the Earth’s vast network of large and small islands, likely hardly know this place exists. The nerve of some people, not noticing me and my place! But it does almost seem too far north to even notice if you live in Peru, and much to far away if you hail from Madagascar. And what do I really know about life in far away places? To what extent do I care?

My limited number of days in this world are measured by the constant speed of this spinning planet. Does the Earth have cruise-control? I don’t know, but eighty or ninety trips around the Sun at this speed, and that will be about it for me. Generations come and generations go. It has been going on like this for years. Planting and harvesting. Life and death. Like a passing cloud, a vapour, a sun-burnt flower, people say. It is over before you even know what it is all about; you fall asleep before you even wake up. Husbands, children, wives, homes, money – all gone, eventually.

It all seems pointless at times to me. King Solomon said as much back in his day, studying, straining to see the answers.

Must leave something of value behind, then. A memory. A legacy. Something that says, “My life mattered.” To come, and see, and conquer must count for something. That must be how you get an “Important” sticker stuck to your life. Or so some say. If it didn’t feel like it mattered much the first time, maybe it will the next time around. One way or another, our lives – we are told – will carry on…through our music, our families, etc. So says The Rankin Family in “Rise Again” – a beautiful, famous, and desperately sad song

Christ’s birth took place in such a way so as to add dignity to people who are feeling small

Some of you reading this have heard more than enough by now. “That’s it. One more melancholic comment from this guy, and I’m going to click my way outta here.” Can’t say that I blame you. But, this brief blog post could quickly expand to fill a large part of the Internet universe, if I was allowed to freely quote all the people who have ever lived who have had such thoughts. You could be clicking for a very long time as you try to escape. For who has not felt small and insignificant? Honestly? Who has not grappled with the purpose or the meaning of life? Who has not caught themselves thinking, “Why should I bother doing anything with my life, anyway?”

I don’t know about you, but I find that I have a fondness for things I have helped to create, and a special fondess for things that are small. And looking at the globe to my left once again, it is almost as if I am assuming God’s perspective. Why should it matter if a country is comparatively large or small, if a life is long or short, if memories linger of not? I can see that God would care regardless. And I can understand that God would surely be extending the possibility of a positive purpose to everyone on this planet.

Christmas is coming and I still have shopping to do. But that will have to wait. For now, I need to remind myself (and maybe a few or you) that Christ’s birth took place in such a way so as to add dignity to people who are feeling small. Jesus was born in a barn, to poor parents, in a place of little consequence. The angelic announcement was made to sheperds, to men who didn’t get much in the way of respect. The creator of the world paid a visit as a helpless child. And for the most part, nobody really noticed in Bethlehem that night or understood what was going on.

If you are wondering how all of this applies to your desire to clarify your career and life direction, may I just say that it does? I think you see how it does.

Merry Christmas fellow small people!