Scale

I received one of the dreaded phone calls last night. A youth group member called about 11:30. This obviously couldn't be good. While I do get calls like this once a month or two, I really appreciate God giving me the chance to make a direct impact in someone's life. Even though it generally means I spend an hour on the phone and say at most 20 words, it feels so good to get off and know that I was there for someone. At the same time, I'd rather the youth's lives be good and not need a comforting call like this.

All that leads up to the fact that this person called my cell phone, which I leave downstairs when I go to bed (and by 11:30, I'm generally in bed). So, I missed the call and there's no message. God will provide, and must have provided for this person last night. Now I'll just see what I can do to help later today.

This got me thinking about why it is youth group members don't call my home phone. I know part of the reason is they don't know it as well (My cell phone is always floating around for people to use, and I give out the number to anyone, while my home phone I still give out but people don't tend to save it). But really I think it's about scale...

I realized though, part of why people call my cell phone instead of home is that, for them, the numbers are the same. When you think of someone living with their parents, where do they leave their cell phone at night? Beside the bed, or somewhere in their bedroom. In fact, most of their lives are centered around their bedroom. This especially follows through into college, when you share one room, and your whole world is in it.

When we finally have our own home (apartment, townhouse, whatever) our whole idea of scale changes. While our personal objects used to fit into one room (or half a room) we now have them spread across multiple rooms (and maybe even multiple floors). For someone under 21, they look at the world knowing it's there, a great big place, but they have one room where everything they cherish fits into. Then that room becomes a house, and the world becomes a little smaller. Anyone who's spent time abroad realizes how much smaller the entire world is (I mean, I can go 1/4 of the way around the world in 7 hours, to the other side of the world in 22 - less than a day). People who never travel outside VS see the U.S. as huge, and larger than anything they can imagine.

What this all leads to is how we see the world. I see it as a somewhat small place. But then Africa, Asia, South America and Australia seem huge and unknown to me, because I've never even been there. Sure I've read about them, but it just makes them seem even stranger and more unknown to me. While Northern Virginia or DC (where I grew up) and even London (spent a semester) seem miniscule. I feel like I know every inch of DC and even a lot of London, just from walking around. I know DC's history, the people, the monuments, night life, whatever.

Then you look at God. He knows everything about everything. He knows everything about DC and Australia. Heck, He even knows everything about Australia's past AND it's future! To God, the world must look pretty darned miniscule.

What I find comforting though is that while I find DC pretty small and easy to understand, I also feel comforted when I visit and really care about what happens to it. I may not have lived there for almost 10 years, but I still appreciate who the new mayor is and what is happening to the city (for good or bad). When I visited London last month (after having been gone for 7 years) I really felt a connection with the place. I felt "at home" again.

Just think, God knows everything about everything. He also feels at home and comfortable with all these places. Whether it's the entire continent of Africa or inside my bedroom. He loves each of us and feels "at home" with us every moment of every day.

Peace.

posted by Tom at 9:21 AM