Back in 1989, Walt Disney Pictures produced the unexpected box office hit Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. The film told the story of an inventor who accidentally shrunk his and his neighbor’s kids to ¼ of an inch with his electromagnetic shrink ray and accidently sent them into the backyard with the trash. The outrageous plotline follows the children trying to make their way back to the house and getting restored to their normal size. The movie capitalized on the comedic juxtaposition of such tiny people trying to live in such a big world.

            When I first saw the movie, I remember thinking, “I wonder what it would like to actually be that small?” Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be the size of a grasshopper? Can you imagine how big everything would seem? Certainly, your perspective of the whole world would change!

            Likewise, our perspective of the world changes and we seem much smaller when we consider the transcendence of God. God’s attribute of transcendence refers to his otherworldliness—that is, he is exalted above and beyond everything in the created universe. He is completely distinct from his creation and is not limited by anything in it. He literally transcends everything in this world; sometimes transcendence is referred to as the “farness” of God. 

            Today I would like to expose you to a few Scripture passages that showcase God’s transcendence and will help us to reflect on how small we really are!

God and Grasshoppers (Isaiah 40:21-26)

            The first Scripture passage I would like us to consider is Isaiah 40:21-26, where the prophet proclaims:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

Isaiah tells us that God was the one who created the universe and everything in it. This story was recorded at the beginning of the Bible (Gen. 1:1) and had been handed down from generation to generation. God is the one who stretched out the heavens like a canopy; he is the one who spread out the earth like a tent to live in; he is the one who plants princes and political powers and he is the one who causes them to whither and fall. He is the one who created the starry host and called each one of them by name. There is no one like God in all of creation; he cannot be compared to anyone or anything; his great power and mighty strength are unparalleled. He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and we are like mere grasshoppers!

            Have you ever thought about how small you are compared to God and the vastness of his creation? We are like little tiny grasshoppers in the midst of a humongous universe around us. When we think about how high and mighty and awesome God is, it should help us to understand how small and weak and limited we really are. But how many people today think that the universe revolves around them? How many people try to convince themselves that they are in control of their own life and destiny? How many people seek recognition and renown for their little accomplishments and good deeds?

            The doctrine of God’s transcendence is not popular in our world today. Rather than contrasting how different God is from us, people like to compare how similar they are to God. And sometimes people are even tempted to think that they are a god. Actress Angelina Jolie has been quoted saying, “There doesn’t have to be a God for me. There’s something in people that’s spiritual, that’s godlike.”

            How about you—does there have to be a God for you? Is your life centered around the one and only God who is transcendent above and beyond the universe or do you worship the people and things that God created?

God’s Thoughts and Man’s Thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9)

            The theme of God’s transcendence continues in Isaiah 55:8-9 when God announces through the prophet, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God is making the point that his thoughts and ways are immeasurably higher than humanity’s. He is above and beyond humans in every way: knowledge, intellect, wisdom, ability, power, and authority.

            I suspect that most of you at some point in your life have been frustrated with God because you didn’t understand his plan for your life. Maybe you have had to endure some awkward adversity, suffer some severe pain, or experience some unexpected loss and you didn’t understand why. Perhaps you have even questioned God’s judgment because it didn’t make sense to you at the time. This is when we must remember that God’s plan is always perfect. I don’t know why we think that we can or should understand God—his thoughts are not our thoughts; his ways are not our ways. His thoughts and ways are higher and better than we could ever imagine! He is transcendent, but he always has our best interest in mind!

Mindful of Man (Psalm 8)

            Psalm 8 probably highlights the doctrine of God’s transcendence better than any other passage in the Bible. It broadcasts God’s majesty and glory over everything in his creation:

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

God’s majesty, glory, and transcendence are displayed in the vastness of his creation. When one considers the entire universe, the Psalmist asks “what is man that you are mindful of him?”

            Let us consider the heavens for a few moments! Let us contemplate the work of God’s fingers. Have you ever considered that there are over seven billion people on our planet right now, and not a single one of them is the same? Have you ever considered that the surface area of the earth is 200 million square miles? Have you ever considered that there are over 20 billion plants and 400 billion stars in just our galaxy? Have you ever considered that light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second, and amazingly, if you could travel that fast, it would still take you 100,000 years to cross the Milky Way Galaxy alone. And then, have you ever contemplated that there are billions upon billions of galaxies in the universe?

            Now doesn’t that make you feel a bit small? That is why verse 4 is so amazing! God is above and beyond everything in his creation, and yet he is still mindful of you and me. He is transcendent above all but he still intimately cares for us. He loves each one of us so much that he allowed his own Son Jesus Christ to suffer and die on the cross to provide atonement and forgiveness for our sins. Jesus conquered death by rising on the third day and he offers us the hope of eternal life through faith in him. Indeed, the Lord’s name is majestic over all the earth! But has the Lord become your Lord?

            When we consider God’s transcendence, it makes us realize just how small we really are. We really are like tiny grasshoppers in a vast universe. This truth ought to keep us humble and remind us that the world doesn’t revolve around us. That said, isn’t it just amazing that the transcendent God of the universe is mindful of us?

            Allow me to conclude by reciting a poem about God’s transcendence. In 1893, a year before he died, the Boston poet Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote A Sunday Hymn: