"Is God as Small as He is Big?"

Luke 12.37 NIV

“It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.”

Is my understanding of God too large? Could He be just as small as He is big? I normally think of God as infinite and heaven as a place where countless of Christians eventually gather to sing never-ending worship choruses for billions of years in the general direction of His giganticness. My vision of eternal life sounds boring, even to me.

What if God surprises me when I get to heaven? What if He is my size (or just a little bigger) and, condescending to my level, invites me to join His realm with the kindness of any other gracious host? Could this scripture, unique to Luke’s gospel, actually be true? Might God be as finite as He is infinite, as small as He is big, as touchable as He is vast? Would the Creator of the universe throw a private dinner party for me and some of my friends? Would He ask us to “recline at the table” and actually “wait on” us? Is this not what Jesus promised for those He finds “watching” upon His return?

The idea of remaining seated while Jesus ‘waits’ on me is uncomfortable. It pushes the mental boundaries of my God-picture, yet it is not that far fetched. Jesus posed (and answered) an important and perplexing question about who serves who:

“For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves?

Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.”

Luke 22.27

In Christ’s parable, “the master… will dress himself to serve” and that’s exactly what Jesus did for me. He ‘clothed’ Himself in humanity and, becoming a servant, laid His life down for me. This incarnational concept remains a mystery. I may not comprehend it, but by faith, I accept it. Jesus is as small as He is big. That He even notices me, much less serves and waits on me, is proof of His divine smallness. It’s more than I can grasp. I resist this notion, much the way Peter did when Jesus dressed Himself in a towel and knelt “to serve” the disciples. “Never shall you wash my feet!” cried Peter (John 13.8).

If God really is as small as He is big, then this life has purpose and the next one will be anything but boring!