He's Got the Whole World in His Hands - Literally

How cool is this?!!

I have had this post on my mind for a few weeks now, but others kept taking precedence. Tonight, I want to put this in writing.

On March 2nd, I read these verses:

Psalm 46:1-2 (NIV)

1. God is our refuge and strength,

         an ever-present help in trouble.

2. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

         and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea...

In my journal, I wrote, "Lord, if you watch the news for five minutes, you can easily believe the earth will soon give way and the mountains will fall in the heart of the sea. I'm not sure if keeping up with the news and politics is even a good thing. If I get caught up in that, it becomes my focus. I say it's all about You, but I become focused on that instead of You. Show me how to have balance, Lord. Not with You on one side of the scale and the world on the other, but with my focus on You and You holding the scales. I want to draw a picture of this, but not sure what it looks like yet. Show me, please, Lord."

And that was the end of my journal entry that morning, but I thought about it all day long, about what a balanced life should look like. I pictured a scales-of-justice type scale and thought about how the world sees God on one side of the scale and the world on the other, and I thought, 'that's all wrong.' I wanted to draw it and planned to use the same type of scales, and I knew I wanted God holding them somehow.

The problem was I couldn't quite figure out what would go on the scales. I kept asking

myself what I needed to have balance in my life, and I kept coming up with the same image and the same question: an image of God holding a scale with the world on one side, but my mind would go blank when I looked at the other side of the scale. What would go on the other side of that scale?? I asked myself that question over and over that day, but I couldn't figure out what I needed to finish the picture.

I knew God's hand should be holding the scale, but I kept getting stuck after that. I pictured God holding me in His palm with the scale perched on one finger but still couldn't figure out what went on the two scales. Then I thought about the cross standing in His palm with the two scales hanging from the cross. Still, I couldn't figure out what went on the two sides. I just kept coming up with only the world at the top of His finger or the cross or whatever image I tried.

I finally - kind of accidentally - decided to try a little faith. That morning in my journal, I had asked God to show me, so I decided to take a picture of my hand to use as a model and just start drawing God's hand and hoped it would come to me as I drew.

This is the picture I took. I was sitting on the couch, concentrating on my hand, not paying a bit of attention to what would be in the background of the picture. Is that not amazing??!!     

I had actually taken 3 pictures before this one and didn't like them because the angle of my hand wasn't the way I wanted it. When I took this one and saw that my hand was angled the way I wanted it, I zoomed in on my hand and got my pencils and sketch book to start drawing. That's when I saw it. I had not once noticed the kids' globe sitting in the background!! I went back to the rejected pictures and looked at them. It was amazingly obvious that God was showing me what an image of balance looked like to Him, because the globe was not centered over my hand in even one of the other pictures! I thought I was rejecting them because my hand was not angled the way I wanted it, but God was rejecting them because the world was not where He wanted it!
God wants the world sitting squarely in His hand. He wants us - each of us - sitting squarely, securely, safely in His hand. He wants all of our worries and cares sitting squarely - and permanently - in His hand. Everything I see on the news. All the gloom and doom about the tragic and cataclysmic events happening everyday all over the world. He wants ALL of it balanced safely and securely in the center of His hand.

I know what a balanced life looks like now because He showed me. How cool is that??!!!

(PS: That drawing was never done and never will be. I don't need to draw it. I have God's own picture of it!)