The movie Men in Black features Will Smith as Agent J and Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K. These agents seek out aliens who have immigrated among various societies on planet Earth. One of the memorable scenes in the movie comes from when Agents J and K interrogate an alien hid in the body of a pug named Frank. When asked about a particular item of interest, Frank the pug retorts, “You humans! When are you going to learn that size doesn’t matter? Just because something is important doesn’t mean it is not very, very small.” Wise words from a tiny pup.
Atheists and skeptics tend to fall in the same category that Frank the pug describes. Many skeptics cannot fathom how a great God could care about humans who, compared among the scope of the universe, are infinitesimally minute. Could such a God care about the little details of one’s life? As I have defended on this website, one can rest comfortably in the revelations—both natural (from the universe) and specific (given by special revelation by God in the Bible)—given for the existence of God. In like manner, one can rest in the knowledge that such a God cares for each person, even if such beings are infinitesimally small.
Two Examples of the Importance of Small Things
If God is concerned over small things, then one would expect that God would place a great emphasis on small things. There are multiple small things in the universe that hold great importance.
DNA
One such example is found in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA for short). DNA is a polymer made from units called nucleotides. The nucleotides are made up of information called nucelobases. These nucleobases include guanine (G), adenine (A), thyminie (T), or cytosine (C) as well as deoxyribose and phosphates. This information is arranged in such a way to create structures called chromosomes. DNA is responsible for the structure of organs, cellular division, and the transfer of information. DNA is critical for life. If the DNA is found to be in disarray, then life either becomes impossible, or one finds damaging mutations which cause great problems for the living thing suffering from such a mutation. All of this is to simply point out one important truth—DNA, although incredibly small, is of vast importance. Thus, the small yet vastly important nature of DNA designates the Creator’s emphasis on small things.
Universal Structure
Another example of the Creator’s emphasis on small things is found in the particle structure of the universe. Parts of the universe are made up from the atomic structure. Atoms are made from three components—a proton (positive charge), a neutron, and an electron (negative charge). Atoms make up solid, liquids, gases, and plasma. Without the atomic structure, life would be impossible, and in fact, much of the universe would be impossible. Thus, atoms hold great importance, but are also incredibly small. Most atoms are around 1.67 x 10-27 to 4.52 x 10-25 kg. Or, it has also been suggested that atoms are around 100 pm (a ten-billionth of a meter). The universe is also constructed of a substance called dark matter. At the time of this article, not much is known of dark matter outside of the fact that it is an invisible form of matter which its evidence is inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter, radiation, and the structure of the universe. Dark matter neither absorbs nor emits light. Scientists suggest that dark matter constitutes around 84.5% of the known universe. While dark matter is also infinitesimally minute, it is of vast importance. The point from this section is found in this—the Creator has placed great importance in small microscopic things. Such is even more apparent when one considers quantum mechanics (e.g. quarks and bosons). Therefore, while something may not be large, that thing may be of huge importance.
Evidence of God’s Concern for Small Things
If one is to concede God’s existence and were to concede the truthfulness of Jesus of Nazareth’s message, then one would find the care that God places on all things great and small. Jesus taught the following in his famous message popularly called the Sermon on the Mount: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they” (Matthew 6:26)?[1] Jesus goes on to say, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith” (Matthew 6:28-30)? Jesus’ teaching is clear. God cares for the most minute of things. Compared to humans, birds and grass seem insignificant. However, God cares for them. One could expand upon Jesus’ message to include DNA, the atomic structure, and the sub-atomic structure. All of these things, while small, are important to God. Therefore, human beings, being made in the image of God, hold great importance to God.
So what can we take from this article? The reader can note that everything in life both small and great holds great importance. While we place greater emphasis on the biggest, the strongest, the fastest, and the smartest; God places emphasis on all things—even the smallest, the weakest, the slowest, and the most intellectually challenged. Often, God chooses the small things to demonstrate the greatness of God’s power. The apostle Paul wrote that “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Do small things hold worth with God? Most assuredly they do!!! For this matter, we can learn a lot from Frank the pug from Men in Black.
© May 2015. Brian Chilton
[1] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture comes from the English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway, 2001).
