The God of Galaxies And Sparrows

Sometimes believing in a cosmic God is easier than believing in a personal God

Prayer In A Storm

One night several years ago, while backcountry camping along the Ocmulgee river, I found myself in the path of a tornado. My rain tarp was pounded with rain and wind, and the weather radio crackled with updates. The thunder demanded I run for shelter, but the darkness gave me nowhere to go.

So, I did what I think most people would do in that situation.

I prayed.

This was not a prayer filled with flowery language. But what it lacked in polish, it made up for in sincerity. It was a primal manifestation of faith, creation reaching to Creator in a moment of need.

Eventually, the storm passed and morning found me safe. But the stillness of that sunrise brought with it a question: Why did I pray? Who was I speaking to, and why did I think it would help?

Powerful and Personal

In that moment of tension, faith strained to reach for two realities. First, I had to believe God was big enough to control a storm. Second, I had to believe he was small enough to hear my single human voice. But sometimes believing in a cosmic God is easier than believing in a personal God. 83% of the U.S. believes in God or a higher power[1], but only 42% say God “hears prayers and can intervene on a person’s behalf.[2]”

Jesus spoke of an all-powerful God who “gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.[3]” But he also said, “not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your [Heavenly] Father knowing it…So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows…the very hairs on your head are all numbered.[4]”

The Hebrew prophet Isaiah hears a cosmic God say, “I am the one who made the earth and created people to live on it. With my hands I stretched out the heavens. All the stars are at my command.[5]” But in the book of Psalms, another writer says, “You have searched me and known me.[6]” The Qur’an says the Creator’s ‭‭“throne extends over the heavens and the earth.[7]” And it also says we “We are closer to [God] than his jugular vein.[8]” The God of Abraham is both powerful and personal.

A traditional Lakota prayer captures this dynamic beautifully. “O Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me. I am small and weak. I need Your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.[9]”

Beyond sacred texts, the natural world offers clues to a Higher Power who is also highly personal. Science tells us we can travel at the speed of light for 93 billion years and still not traverse the universe. Our tiny planet rotates around one star, in a galaxy of 200 billion stars, in a universe of two trillion galaxies[10]. And while science testifies of the awe-inspiring vastness of creation, it also says each of us are infinitely unique. About 117 billion humans have lived on earth[11], and no two have had the same fingerprints, DNA, even gut microbiome[12]. Each of us is a one-of-a-kind, once-in-eternity creation, bearing the personal touch of a caring God. The scale and complexity defy human explanation

The God We Pray To

Millennia of human experience and the vastness of creation hint at a Higher Power. But even as we embrace a reality that is bigger and more complex than we can comprehend, we still wrestle with a second question. Does God care about me? My prayer in the storm only makes sense if both aspects of God are true.

Each time I think about the universe, each time I pray, I am challenged to reach for this most relevant and most powerful version of faith, a faith that dares to believe the God of the Galaxies is also the God of the Sparrows.

Galaxies and Sparrows

Faith believes your hands are big

Big enough to hold planets,

Big enough to hold eternity

Big enough to hold life and death

Big enough to hold all of creation

Big enough for anything

But our lives are small

Blinks in eternity

A series of fragile breaths

A job that might be too hard today

A headache that won’t go away

Next month’s house payment

A safe drive home

Tiny things in the scope of all eternity

Surely too tiny to concern

The God who holds everything

But could it be

Your hands are also small?

Small enough to touch a human heart?

Small enough to wipe the tears of a child?

Small enough to confine himself

To a finite moment

In the finite mind

Of a finite creature?

Your hands hold planets

As gently as they hold babies

Faith in a God of the galaxies

Is really only half a faith.

The other part

Perhaps the greater part,

Is faith in a God

Who gently holds the sparrow

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FOOTNOTES

[1] Pew Research Center, 2025

[2] (Gallup, 2022).

[3] ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭45‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[4] Matthew‬ ‭10‬:‭29‬-‭31‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[5] Isaiah‬ ‭45‬:‭5‬, ‭7‬, ‭12‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[6] Psalm 139:

[7] Qur’an 2:255

[8] Qur’an 50:16:

[9] Traditional Lakota prayer (popularized through Chief Yellow Lark, 1887, The Indian Prayer in American Anthology)

[10] The universe is ~93 billion light-years across, with an estimated two trillion galaxies (NASA/JPL-Caltech, 2016), and is continuously expanding. Earth’s distance from the sun, oxygen ratio (~21%), and DNA complexity each represent improbable equilibrium (Kasting et al., Science, 1993).

[11] Population Reference Bureau, “How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?” (updated 2022)

[12] No two humans share identical DNA, fingerprints, or even gut microbiomes (NIH, 2012).

[13] Isaiah 49:16 NLT

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