A Big World Can Seem Small at Times

Sunday, we were at church in the worship service. We sat with our daughter and son-in-law. A couple we did not know sat in the row in front of us. At the conclusion of the service, we all introduced ourselves. It was their first Sunday to attend our church and they were fairly new in our city. One of the usual questions is "where did you move from to come to Colorado?" They had moved from Texas and from the same city we had once lived. Then the lady and our daughter discovered that they had both grown up in the same town, gone to the same Middle School, and graduated from the same High School.

Does that seem strange or familiar to you? We are all living 699 miles from where we once lived, in a different city, in a different state, and over 30 years in between. Maybe that has happened to you before as you traveled on vacation to a distant area and met someone you had known before or at least someone from your hometown. Those times make it seem as if we live in a very small world.

However, do you realize that we live on a planet that now has a population of over 8.3 billion people? How many of those do you know? One study revealed that the average person knows around 600 people. Another study concluded that a person usually maintains no more than 150 people in any social network at a given time. A third study reveals that over a lifetime we might have 3,000 to 10,000 casual acquaintances, 500 to 2,000 conversational acquaintances, and 50-200 deeper friendships. (Your Facebook and Instagram numbers do not represent deeper friendships.)

So, we live in a big world in terms of population, but we live in a relatively small world in terms of people we actually know as acquaintances and even smaller in terms of real friendships.

Do you ever wonder if anyone knows everybody? For you and me, that is a mute question. Of course, none of us knows everybody. However, there is one who does know everyone. He knows us all by name and even to the point of how many hairs are on our heads. He knows all that we have done and spoken. He knows what we think. He knows our past and our future. The Bible reveals the one true God who knows us completely.

"O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold,

O Lord, you know it altogether."

Psalm 139:1-4

"But even the hairs of your head are all numbered."

Matthew 10:30

"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,

and before you were born, I consecrated you;"

Jeremiah 1:5

No matter how many people you know, God knows you. He not only knows us, but He also loves us and desires that we might know Him and love Him. Our access to God is only through Jesus Christ. By putting our faith and trust in Christ, we have full access to God today and for all eternity.

I am thankful for the people I have been able to know and for the friends that I have. But I am even more thankful that God knows me and that He has given me the means by which I might know Him.

Have a great week in our Big/Small World that was created by God and maintained by Him. We are part of that creation.