When do we outgrow our smallness? I mean the sun and the moon and the stars and the planets and the grains of sand and the…well, the earth and everything about it dwarfs us. A constant reminder of our unimportance in the scheme of things.

When do we see ourselves big? grown? fully mature? like God sees us with His expansive vision. God, who has every right to dismiss us or even accidentally step on us or overlook us, but doesn’t. He sees all of us – circumstances, hopes, dreams, suffering, hardship – on the big screen. He expands us to God-sizing.

The world says, Act your size. You’re nothing. Sit down and shut up.

God says, You’re the most important thing. Stand up and speak up.

So many are afraid of getting called on or getting called up. We cower in our seats remembering the second grade when we prayed not to be exposed for the answer we didn’t know or the homework we didn’t do. We recall, only too completely, the shame of being summoned to the teacher’s desk to be admonished for our poor behavior or our poor performance.

And what of the alphabetical firing squad? Rat-a-tatting through the roll. Waiting our turn, our hearts jumping into our throats, our minds working overtime racing through the facts and figures. Will I be ready when she calls on  me? Competitive academics extracts a great price; no wonder we are afraid of standing up.

Much better to be small, stay out of the way and let the Giants, the over-achievers, and the smart kids, fight it out. But God says no. We are to stand when we’re ready to walk without falling. When we can stand without pushing off and without looking down. Because the fear of heights surely would kill us. Certainly it would stop us dead in our tracks.

So we spend our whole lives learning to walk.

We tip and lean and race our way to Momma.

We trip and fall over our own two feet at the dance.

We stumble over our gown.

We stagger under the weight of demands.

We hoist ourselves up under pressure.

We hang on for dear life

until we’re rescued.

We reach up and take the hands extended to us and

We are lowered, softly and gently to find our footing.

And we stand, without looking around, or looking down, or even looking behind, but only looking ahead, and we take our first step.

Come to me, my beloved Child.

With no fear and no hesitation, we come running.