“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail . . . ?”

— Job 38:22

Have you ever noticed that things that looked really big when you were a child don’t seem so big when you are older? I remember walking through my old elementary school after becoming an adult, and one of the first things I noticed was how much smaller everything looked and felt.

But it’s not just the size of things that seems different; our perception of time changes too. When I was a boy, a summer night seemed to last and last, and a school year seemed to go on forever.

Life changes as we age. Congested calendars and stacked schedules abbreviate our lives. Deadlines, commitments, and requests beg, steal, and borrow our attention from the beauty of life and the creation God has given us to care for and enjoy.

Maybe even more tragic is that we can lose our sense of God’s grandeur as we grow older. As children, we tend to view God as huge and magnificent, someone with incredible power and ability, able to do even more than any superhero! As we age and live longer, though, we can tend to question God’s actions, critique his plans, and challenge his authority. We might even believe we know what’s best for us, thinking we know our situation better than God does. Instead, though, we need to turn to our Creator and ask for his mercy, for he holds us in his hands and truly loves and cares for us always.

King of creation, thank you for your enduring mercy. Forgive us when we diminish you. Humble us to see you as you truly are. Amen.