Psalm 8

Sometimes, I wonder why God wakes me up at 3:00AM only for me to hear... Nothing. this has been happening recently, and i sit there thinking, "Um, God. I'm awake. I am assuming this is important since everything You say is important. So I'm awake and listening. What's up?" And then... Nothing. BUT NOT THIS MORNING! Before I could even get through the usual, "Extremely good morning to You, what-" Psalm 8 was in the forefront of my mind. I was a little taken aback at first since it's been a few weeks since I clearly heard a distinct passage to look at, but nonetheless, I was excited to look at it.

Psalm 8:
Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
in the heavens.
² Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
³ When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?

⁵ You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
⁷ all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
⁸ the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹ Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

These verses say in other words a lot of things I have heard before: that even if God tends to the crows and flowers, will He not provide for you? (Matthew 6:26) That God cares to know my name despite the fact He created the entire universe and I am of no size importance? (Jeremiah 1:5) etc. But the words are not put in a familiar order, they are written poetically (which speaks to me because I have been given a passion for writing and poetry.)

Through the praises of infants and children, all of us since we are ll God's children, no one can harm Him or us. I remember working at the daycare for about 5 years and when one of the kids complimented me with their innocence, I would remember it for a long time, even when they needed a timeout weeks later. It was still the cute little blue eyed boy who told me I was pretty. Now, if we are the children of God, does He also not take delight when we praise Him with our innocence and simple words? I can say, "God, you are so good" (one of my new favorite phrases) as much as I want, but that does nothing to even represent His splendor! But with such simple words, He conquers every single enemy He has and we encounter. How encouraging is this to us?!

Then who are we? Who are we to call upon the God who spoke the word, "light" and it was there? The closest I can get to that is clapping to a sensor, but no! He spoke and that was it! His power surpasses everything! Yet He provides everything we need to us with ease, placing it directly beneath our feet so all we have to do is bend over and pick it up. No work at all. Not to mention that He loves us so much that He gave us His creation to rule over, despite havign made it Himself. How can we even claim to take the credit for all this goodness?! What have we done to deserve this?! NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! (I would indeed be yelling this if I was reading it aloud.) And somehow every day we say, "Look at how amazing these people are for building this or creating that or curing said disease or etc." We did nothing, all we did was bend down and pick up the creation God left us to take care of! No work!

What I am not saying is that we should downplay when certain illnesses are cured or an endangered species is being saved, but we should glorify God all the more for providing us with the information, the creation, the goodness and love to do these things!

Now how does this relate to me at 3:00AM on Friday morning (can I even say morning?) Another way to look at this passage is to see how much God values us and that because He sees us as worthy of taking care of all He has made, why should we seek approval from those around us? I don't struggle with it like I used to and I embrace it now that I am different from my peers, but that isn't to say that it doesn't flare up sometimes and I wonder how I will feel about myself in the future if so-and-so doesn't like me. It doesn't matter! Because God loves me and finds me in His favor and I am saved! That is enough, forever! It also reminds me to not look to the future too far (especially with college right around the corner. Yikes.) when I will be trying to make a lot of friends. Not everyone will like me, and that is just A-okay! As long as I continue to praise His name, everything will fall right into place in front of my eyes.

~Ashlyn