Whenever anyone says to me, “Small world,” I always think, “Big God.” Do you know what I mean? People will see something that looks like a coincidence and say, “Small world.” They mean, “I ran into somebody unexpectedly,” or “I had no idea we both knew the same person.” When I say, “Big God,” I mean that God is orchestrating the encounter. Nothing surprises him. The world is small, but our God is big.
John ran into another angel. This angel was so big he was robed in a cloud and his head was just under a rainbow. His face was like the sun and his legs were like fiery pillars, straddling the sea and land. If an angel is that big, how much larger is God? The big angel was carrying a tiny little scroll. We might expect such a huge angel to be carrying a large scroll. Why was it small? It was just John’s size.
Like Ezekiel before him, John is told to eat the small scroll. What does a scroll taste like? Honey in the mouth, but sour in the stomach. God was preparing John to speak his story. Maybe this gives some credence to our saying, “God will never give you more than you can bear.” God takes the huge story of his grace and entrusts it to little people like John and us. We get to speak for God if we will. Only when we feast on God’s word do we have something to say to the world. From God’s perspective, the world is so small. From our perspective, God is so big. Indeed, he is mighty to save.
