And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, MIGHTY GOD…
The title Mighty God brings to mind the first Veggie Tales video that our family ever owned. If you aren’t familiar with Veggie Tales, they are a series of children’s videos starring a talking tomato and cucumber named, respectively, Bob and Larry. They sing and dance and teach biblical truth in a way that kids remember. The name of our first video was Where is God when I’m S-scared? The theme song is called God is Bigger. The girls loved the video and I think they learned an important truth about God’s mightiness from singing that song. I wish I had video of my two tiny girls singing those lyrics:
God is bigger than the boogie man.
He’s bigger than Godzilla,
or the monsters on TV.
Oh, God is bigger than the boogie man.
And He’s watching out for you and me.
He’s watching out for you and me.
God being bigger than the boogie man was important when they were 2 or 3. God being the biggest when they are taking an Algebra test or facing ugly peer pressure or having trouble going to sleep is more imortant at 11 or 14….or 43.
The mightiness of God is the antidote to fear. Numerous times in scripture we hear God say to us “do not fear.” The reason He can say that to us is because He is in control and there is no power in the universe greater than His. Mighty means “having or showing great power,skill, strength or force.” It also means “imposing or awesome in size, degree or extent.” God’s power, strength and influence mean that we can rest in His embrace and turn our worry and fear over to Him. Even when we don’t understand why, we can rest assured that He has it under control and His ways are always best. We can retire every day as the General Manager of the Universe because He already has that job and He is much better at it than we are anyway.
Another of my favorite metaphors for our Mighty God is the great lion Aslan in the Narnia Chronicles. I shared one of my favorite excerpts from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in a blog entry I wrote last year at Christmas time, but I think that it is so appropriate for this topic that I simply must share it again. Lucy and the other children are asking Mr. and Mrs. Beaver about Aslan, the King:
“Is—is he a man?” asked Lucy.
“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion–the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Oooh,” said Susan, “I thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you.”
Isn’t that a perfect definition of our Mighty God…too powerful, too strong, too big to be entirely safe, but so very, very good. Aren’t you glad you are on His side?
Hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to a very happy and healthy new year. My olest loves Veggie Tales and watches the DVDs (and listens to the CDs) often; in fact, they were her first exposure to Sunday school songs that she has grown to love.
This Christmas was really wonderful for our family — the first for our youngest, and the first one for our oldest where she has a firm comprehension of what was going on. The biggest joy for me was watching how into the story of Christ’s birth my oldest got; she wanted to hear the story over and over, she asked many questions about the three kings and the baby and Mary and the Archangel Gabriel – it was incredible to see how amazed she is with the whole story!
With my best to you and yours for 2008!