Just the Right Size

Mikenzie Ling reflects on finding peace in our place within creation.

When I was younger, I would sneak outside after everyone in the house was asleep and I would lay in the dew, staring at the stars and feeling the cool damp air down to the very bottom of my lungs. I would wake up in the twilight and go sit on our back fence with my feet brushing the tops of the paddock grass as the dawn would seep in through the mist and hoarfrost. At barely 16-years-old then, I would often feel exhausted, old and unable to fully catch my breath. I was in a season where trauma, grief, and addiction were deep undercurrents sweeping and pulling at my family, and I didn’t know how to control or contain it. So, I would slip outside and just watch, as all the life around and above and below me never ceased to thrum and dance in time with rhythms of rest that seemed so much deeper than the tide waters I was treading.

I would go out there just to ‘be’, and to meet with God. And I would feel huge, and I would feel tiny, and I would feel…just the right size again. Because the dew drops do have a father. Because the hoarfrost does come forth from its mother. And because we, like all these created things, are watched over, known and sustained by Creator God.

The verses in Job 38 and 39 are rich reminders that we are simply one part within a kinship of creation. It is in the humility of recognising we are not above the rest of creation, but rather nestled within it and nourished alongside it, that we are able to embrace and rest in the peace of our Creator’s sovereignty; a loving-kindness which unties our ropes and sets us free, despite the commotions in life, to wander the hills laughing and searching for green things.

I keep those little moments from when I was younger stored away in my heart, like tiny smooth pebbles collected as keepsakes. They are reminders that God always answers out of the whirlwind but often is using a still small voice, the one that we can better discern and rest under when we are quietened and settled within our place amongst created kin.

Now that I am older, I go outside when no one is awake and I stare at the stars. I feel tiny, and I feel huge, and I feel just the right size. I go to meet God, and I always find peace.

This reflection is from week two of our Season of Creation Bible Study Series, 'All Things New – Faith, Creation, and the Wider Story of God'. This five-week series explores how God’s work of renewal embraces all of creation. From Genesis to Revelation, discover how our faith calls us to both personal transformation and collective, hope-filled action. Download our study here -www.commongrace.org.au/season_of_creation_bible_study