Have you taken the time?

 Have you ever taken the time to look at creation and sit in awe of how awesome God is?  This past Monday, I attended the Chicago West Area Team meeting and we took time to do a retreat of silence at a beautiful garden.  After going through the retreat guide, I just took some time to walk around admire the garden.  As I can to the end of a path I found a plaque that had Psalm 8 on it.  So curious to figure out why they chose that Psalm, I looked it up in my Bible to see what it was about (this version is the ESV):
     
            O LORD, our Lord, 
      how majestic is your name in all the earth! 
                  You have set your glory above the heavens. 
            Out of the mouth of babies and infants, 
                  you have established strength because of your foes, 
      to still the enemy and the avenger. 

            When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, 
      the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 
            what is man that you are mindful of him, 
      and the son of man that you care for him? 

            Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings 
      and crowned him with glory and honor. 
            You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; 
      you have put all things under his feet, 
            all sheep and oxen, 
      and also the beasts of the field, 
            the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, 
      whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 

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

And now I understood why they picked that Psalm to be on a plaque in a garden.  Surrounded by God's magnificent creation, to think that He created each unique plant, leaf, pebble, petal, ripple, bug, & animal can only make you echo the Psalmist's thoughts "who am I that the Creator of the universe should be mindful of me?" The Almighty God, Savior of the World, King of All is also the greatest Artist ever who created all the beauty that is around us.  Not only that, but the LORD of hosts took the time to intricately form man, to form you, to form me.  Not only though did He form us, He CARES for us.  He cares for you.  He cares for me.  In fact, it isn't just that He cares, He LOVES.  The awesome, mighty, powerful, Creator God loves me, loves each of us individually.  The Bible says that God knows the number of hairs on our head.  He knows that not just because He is Omniscient, but because He made each one of those individual hairs.  He pays attention to the smallest detail about me, and He is the King of Kings.  "Who am I that the LORD should be mindful of me?"

The simple answer is just that He loves us.  He loves you.  He loves me.  He loves me enough to make me; I am fearfully and wonderfully made by Him. He cares and loves me enough to count the hairs on my head.  And as I began to reflect on that, it reminded me that if God cares enough to do that, then He cares also about those bigger things too.  If He cares to uniquely make every detail about me, then He cares about me spending time with Him.  He cares about how I'm doing emotionally, if I'm happy, stressed, excited, angry, sad, joyful... He cares about my concern for my family when they are sick.  He cares about my need to have quiet time.  He cares about my financial needs to be 100% funded to work full time with students at AU with IV.  He cares about my heart to see the lost at AU be reached with the love of Christ.  And He cares for each one of those students at AU that don't know Him yet.  

Not only does He care about me, He cares about them.  God took time to create them; each one is fearfully and wonderfully made by Him. If He cared enough to create the 2,600 students that are at AU, each one uniquely formed, then I should care for them too.  We should care for them too.  And that care means that we should be concerned for the eternal destiny of each of those students.  God loves each of the students, and we should too.  At a conference once, the speaker asked a really bold question.  He asked how much do you have to hate someone to not share with them the Good News of Christ?  Obviously none of us hate college students, but do we love them enough to share with them that there is a a Creator God who made them, and loves them, and because of that love sent Christ to die for their sins so they can spend eternity with the God who is Love?  This is a challenging question for me to have to honestly answer, so I know it is hard for all to really answer that.  So the next question is what do you do with that?  Now that you have been asked if you love them, how will you show that you do?  My answer is that I went on staff with IV to share the love of Christ with them on a full time basis.  You're answer won't look the same as mine, but you still need to answer it.  You're answer might simply be praying for those students, some others might respond by serving the college students at their church, others still might intentionally invest time in mentoring a students, others still might respond by financially supporting ministries that serve the college campus.  A hard question sometimes requires an answer that is hard to do but love is not easy.  We are to be known as Christians by our love, and that means that love needs to extend to the college campus as well.  If God loves us, then we need to love like He does.