Salt + Light Fort Worth

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name?

In all the Earth?

Earth you have set your glory into
heavens for de praise, children

and infants, you have established
a stronghold against your enemies

to silence the vote and be avenger.

When I consider your heavens the work
of your fingers, the mood of stars,

which you upset in place, what is
mankind that you are mindful of them.

Humans beings that you care for them.

You have made them a little
lower than the angels and crowned

them with glory and honor.

You've made them rulers over
the works of your hands.

You put everything under your feet,
their feet, all flocks, and her and

the animals of the wild, the birds
in the sky and the fish in the sea.

All that's one of the paths of the seas.

Lord, how adjusted is your
name in all the earth?

Good job.

That's my daughter, uh, felt that
when you hear the topic today, it was

appropriate to have a, a kid, a big kid.

We're talking about little kids, but a
big kid read and, um, just start this, uh,

period of teaching and lead out in that.

Um, I picked Psalm eight.

Um, because it's a really fun song.

I get to talk about nature
and babies and birds.

So I am all in on this teaching.

I'm excited about it.

Um, I'm not going to, you know,
play guitar while I talk or

do anything weird like that.

Um, if you came two weeks ago, my husband
played piano while he talked, and it

was amazing and you should listen to it.

Um, but I'm not gonna do that.

And so I'm following him and I'm following
my, my daughter's amazing reading.

But today we are talking
about God's greatness.

And specifically how it is revealed
in small everyday things around

us, in nature and in our lives.

Uh, someone I was reading referred
to as the psalm as a hymn of delight,

and my prayer has been that as we
consider some of these everyday things

in our world and in creation, we would
be moved to delight and to praise.

So when you, um, skim back over the
Psalm, if you have it in your Bible.

Um, it's okay if you on it, Psalm eight,
you kind of notice that there's a pattern.

David is credited as the author and
he chooses words about things that

are really big and really small,
really strong, and things that we

consider to be weak or fragile.

And it's like he's taking a magnifying
glass and moving it back and forth.

If you follow the pattern, he
starts and ends with how majestic

is your name in all the earth?

Talking about God's.

Majesty across the galaxy, which is just
this, this inconceivably huge concept

that we can't even wrap our minds around.

And then he talks about
glory in the heavens.

And then he talks about infants,
and then he talks about the moon and

the stars, and he talks about humans
and then angels and then animals.

And he ends again with how majestic
is your name and all the earth.

So we're gonna kind of
follow, uh, David's listing.

I think he did this kind of on purpose
when we're thinking about our world, think

he kind of goes in and out of those, the
ideas of bigness and smallness on purpose.

So we're going to start with.

Infants and children, and I'm going
to spend a good chunk of the time

today talking about small children.

And again, I'm talking about babies
and toddlers and preschoolers.

I'm not talking at, uh, the
big kids that are here today.

I don't want you to think that I'm,
um, talking at you for this part.

Um, but, um, we're going to do that
because, uh, it's not a parenting lesson.

It's not just meant for parents
or people who care for kids.

But I, I wanna do this because I
think David leads in this for us.

And, um.

It helps us to consider God's greatness
when we look at this small thing in

front of us, these small little people,
and we were children once, right?

So this design is part of our
DNA, part of our history, and we

have this age group in our church.

So I would love to take some time
celebrating them and learning from them.

Over the past few years,
um, a little bit about me.

I've worked a lot with little bitty
children, um, more than I even

expected, uh, over the past few years.

And a lot of what I've done is
working with kids in nature,

really unique, um, situations, and
I can testify that working with.

These babies and toddlers and
preschoolers is, uh, exhausting.

It's really, really hard.

It's the hardest job I've ever had.

Uh, by far, uh, the pictures
I've taken, every single one

is just beautiful and idyllic.

But in those moments, the work
itself often doesn't feel glamorous.

Uh, it's not easy, but there are
moments when it has felt very sacred.

There have been moments when I
experienced, um, what I can only

describe as this sense of holy wonder.

From interacting with these
little children, and I'm not

getting country granola, it's
not just about my experience.

They're actually.

Many, many verses in the Bible
that talk about the unique

attributes of little children.

Of small children specifically.

So we're gonna start, we're gonna
talk about a few of those, and the

first one is from the psalm and it
says, through the praise of children

and infants, you have established
a stronghold against your enemies

to silence the foe and the avenger.

David knew personally from his
life how God values children.

As a young man, um, we think
between the ages of 10 and 15, he

was selected to be the future king.

He was the smallest of his brothers.

He wasn't even included in
the initial selection process.

He was out taking care
of sheep in the fields.

He was a shepherd.

Um, and, and shortly after,
he was selected to be a

king, still in his age range.

As a child, he defeated a giant
man, and he didn't have a special

sword or supernatural strength.

He had one rock.

Um, and I think in his story
we can see that God chose the

righteous anger and simple weapon
of a child to silence his enemy.

David writes about children,
young children, even babies

and infants as being strong.

They are physically weak, right?

We have to carry them.

We have to feed them and take care
of them, but God works through

their praise to establish a
stronghold against his enemies.

We see throughout the Bible that God
over and again uses the smallest and

weakest to accomplish great things.

Another example in the Bible about, uh,
children and little children is one of

the most famous stories about Jesus.

It's referred to as the Let
the Little Children Come.

And it's on every, uh, children's
Bible as a picture of it.

And, uh, the story, I'm just gonna
summarize it, but the story is about,

um, adults coming to Jesus to be healed.

Then some parents try to
come and bring their children

and the disciples stop them.

This is an adult only space.

This is a serious space here.

And uh, Jesus intervenes and says, no, no.

Let them come.

And then he puts his hands on
them too and heals them too.

And I think in that story, we see that
Jesus is validating the child's right to

have equal access to him, to be healed.

They have just as much
space in there as the adult.

Another example, one of my favorite,
um, examples in the Bible is in Matthew

18, and the disciples are hanging out
with Jesus and he's talking to them,

and the disciples ask them, who is
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

And this is what it says.

Jesus called a little child to him
and placed the child among them.

And he said, truly, I tell you, unless you
change and become like little children.

You will never enter
the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore, whoever takes the lowly
position of this child is the

greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And I love the imagery of Jesus
asking a child to actually come and

stand with him to make this point.

And the disciples standing there and
staring down at this little child

and considering what Jesus means,
that they need to become like them

to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And there are many interpretations,
I think, in meanings that we

can glean from this story.

But one is that children
don't struggle to accept their

position as relying on adults.

Doesn't mean that they
happily accept what we given.

They're not like, oh, mac and
cheese, thank you so much.

You know, they'd say they complain,
they don't always act happy.

Um, but they don't expect to have that.

They have to get a job.

They don't have to, you know, wash
their own clothes, fix their own food.

They accept us as their
caregivers and as adults.

Some of us struggle with accepting
God's grace because we can't earn it.

Sort of on the flip side, it's not
given based on what we do or what

we sacrifice or what we earned.

Toddlers don't have, you know, internal
angst about whether or not they deserve

a dessert based on their behavior today.

They're not, you know, sitting
there really stewing on that.

Um, we give 'em a cookie, they accept
the cookie, they eat the cookie, they

smash the cookie, they might throw the
cookie, and then they hold their hand out

and boldly ask for another cookie and.

We see David, in a way,
model this attitude.

Something I think we
can learn from toddlers.

We see him model this in Psalm 51.

So in Psalm 51, he's grown up.

At this point, he is no longer a
child, and he wrote this psalm after

he has really, really messed up.

A couple of weeks ago, been played
the piano and spoke about how long

it took for David to be made a king,
and how much of a struggle that was.

It was this period of just trusting God
and remaining faithful to God despite how

difficult the, the period of his life was.

And then David is finally
made king, and he just blows

it in just the worst of ways.

He blows it and his bad choices affect
him and his family and his kingdom.

And in Psalm 51, we can read
his reaction, what he writes.

Uh, after a prophet has called him out
for what he's done in the psalm, we

see that David confesses what he did.

He asks for forgiveness, but he doesn't
just stop there and wallow in his

despair and his shame like a toddler.

He boldly asks for more.

David asks God to restore both his joy
and his relationship with God, trusting

that his loving father will sustain
him through the hard years to come.

He's not afraid to ask
for that from his father.

And the last thing I wanna point
out about small children is one

of my favorite things about them.

And that's, uh, they give us a
unique lens to view creation.

Little kids already know
that creation is great.

Um, I have two kids, I never
had to teach them that.

Rocks are cool, right?

You go on a walk, they pick
up a rock, and they're like.

Uh, this is a masterpiece, right?

And it becomes a family heirloom.

It is a treasured thing in our home.

They're not, um, distracted yet by
all the worries that we carry as

adults and the noise and our phone
and the news and our bills and all

the things we're thinking about.

They're giving whatever is in front
of them, all of their focus, just

like a laser focus on whatever
they are seeing and, and noticing.

They're also very short.

They are low to the ground.

Their perspective is different than us.

Leaves and roll.

Pullies and flowers are their domain
and they are just amazed by all of it.

It is new to them.

It's fresh and it's exciting.

I may look away from my phone to
see a mountain or the ocean, but a

dandelion probably not until a child
pulls me down to their level and

helps me to see the way they see, and
through that their awe is infectious.

Their delight in creation leads
my heart to worship the creator.

When my kids were, um,
younger, they're older now.

When they were a little bitty, we lived in
a house that had one big tree in the yard.

And I remember, especially during
the pandemic when we were home

all the time, how significant
this tree was in our daily life.

Loved this tree.

It was so important to us.

Uh, first of all, it shaded our yard,
uh, for hours during the day, so that

really allowed our kids to be outside
for longer and play outside for longer.

And, uh, did you know that the shade of
a tree is significantly more effective?

Than any shade that we can make.

If you make a canopy or a, you know,
a patio, it blocks the sun, but a tree

releases moisture, so it actually cools
the area under it by 10 or 15 degrees.

So we can't replicate tree shade.

So we love this tree, uh, and our kids
would play around it and they'd watch

birds and squirrels fighting, and it was
just this endless source of entertainment.

And then right when it would start
to get a little bit boring, they'd

kinda get a little tired of it.

Acorns would just start falling from the
sky, just these little shiny treasures.

And then the whole thing would
change color, and then suddenly

all the leaves would fall off and
their entire landscape would change.

It's a new world, new area of play,
leaves crunching all over the place.

And I, I just feel that the, the
light a single tree can bring to a

child's life bears witness to the
thought and care our creator had for

every detail of our experience in this
world, including how he designed our

physical bodies to react to nature.

So a little more science.

Different than the tree science.

Um, there are many research backed
studies that show that when we

are outside, our cortisol levels
lower, that's our stress hormones.

They lower, and our serotonin
and dopamine levels raise.

Those are our feelgood chemicals
that make us feel happy.

So the research has mainly been used
to advocate for getting kids outside,

more recess time, more time outside.

They learn better.

They're in better moods,
so their behavior's better.

Um, but it also applies for adults.

We are the same.

We react the same when we are outside.

And there's a lot of scientific theories
on why this is, um, there's not really

a consensus, but as a believer, I don't
think we can completely rule out the

idea that the smallest building blocks,
if our anatomy are turning us towards

creation like a flower to sunlight.

Um, all right, we're gonna
move on from children.

I could talk about that the whole time.

We're gonna move on from children.

The next thing David writes on his list
after children is he goes to the heavens.

So he says, when I consider your heavens
the work of your fingers, the moon and

the stars, which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of

them human beings that you care for them?

David, when he writes this, he's
kind of setting up a scale for us.

On one side you consider the moon, the
stars, the heavens space is the, was then

and is still the biggest, most mysterious
part of creation that we can observe.

And he says that it is
the work of God's fingers.

And I think this is as close as we can
come to comprehending the largeness of

God that he placed the stars in the sky.

So that's one side of the scale.

And on the other side there's us, there's
me and David's kind of making us consider

what are we in comparison to that?

Why would God care for us?

But to God, there is no comparison.

He cares more for us than
all the stars in the moon.

It says He has crowned
us with glory and honor.

He is mindful of us
individually, uniquely.

He made this perfect, beautiful,
interesting world and then he gave it

to us to take care of and to rule over.

And then David starts listing creatures.

So first he lists flocks and
herds, animals, birds, fish,

and all that swim in the sea.

And I'm not really like a
whale and shark girl, so we're

not gonna go into that part.

Um, but I do find it
interesting that he lists.

Flocks first, remembering his
childhood and that he was a shepherd.

He spent his entire days outside of
the sheep out in nature, and I think he

deeply understands the responsibility
of caring for God's creation.

That we are called to a stewardship,
and I think he knows what that

means and values that role.

I love that David included birds and fish.

On the list.

On this list too, like the little
things, little bitty things our family

has gotten really into our bird feeder.

Are there any bird people
have bird feeders tracking it.

Okay.

Just, well, we are, we're really into it.

And we have a book and we read about it.

Cardinals meet for light.

We find all these fun facts.

Um.

And I think a lot of people, you
know, in school or in like movies,

we learned that birds migrate south.

Like the flying V, the ducks in the sky.

We learned that birds migrate south
for the winter to warmer areas.

But I just learned this year that
monarch butterflies migrate is

this common knowledge, you know?

Oh, everybody knows that.

Thank you.

Okay.

No birds, but okay.

Um, so to me.

To me, this was new knowledge.

And it is wild to me because
butterflies are so delicate.

Like you can just, I feel
like how can they barely move

from a flower to a flower?

They're just these
little paper thin wings.

They get blown around.

You know, my kids are, we're
always trying to catch 'em.

Like how do they, how do they migrate?

And I learned about it because my
daughter, uh, Piper, who read earlier, she

brought home a book from school and it's
called, uh, the Mystery of the Monarchs.

And it's a picture book about an
entomologist, which is a bug scientist.

So that was.

You know, pumped about this book.

So she asked me to read it and
I read it to her, and it's about

a, uh, a man named Fred Erkart.

There it is.

Fred and his wife Nora.

And when Fred was a little boy, he was
living in Canada and he was already really

obsessed with bugs, really interested in
butterflies and as children do, he wrote

to a professor and asked them What happens
to monarch butterflies in the winter?

Where do they go when
it gets cold in Canada?

And the professor wrote back and said,
actually, this science community.

Doesn't know.

We don't know what happens
to monarch butterflies.

Some think they hibernate,
some think they die.

Some think they go to
warmer client climates.

Um, but no one knows.

So Fred.

Was still interested in this.

And he grew up and he became a
professor, an entomology professor,

and started digging into this and
married this, um, go-getter named Nora.

And they created this citizen
science project where they, uh,

figured out how to tag butterflies
so that you could track them.

And then they wrote, uh, newspaper
articles and wrote letters to people all

across Canada and North America and the
United States, and ask people to help them

find monarchs and respond when they find
them that they found this number here.

And so over the course of decades.

They started to track where the monarchs
were coming from Canada, and they could

tell they went, um, through the United
States into the Texas region and they

kept going farther into South America.

And a volunteer who was part of this
project was driving around South

America, asking people, you know,
have you seen a lot of monarchs?

Has, have you seen Monarch
butterflies and near Mexico City?

Some reside.

Um, just very generously took them
to a forest, um, that had monarch

butterflies, and they describe it
when they stepped into this forest.

They describe it as, it looked
like fall because of the number

of orange butterfly wings, just
absolutely covering every surface.

They said that the leaves, the
branches, the chunks of the

trees across the entire floor.

Just millions of monarch butterflies
migrated to this forest every year.

And so they, um, called the Erhart.

The erhart got to fly to this
forest, and this is a part of this,

you know, scientist picture book
that just started making me tear

up as I'm reading it to Piper.

'cause I was thinking about what it must
have been like for Fred and Nora to.

Sit in that forest for the first time
that this had been the work of their life.

This had been 50 years, uh, for Fred of
looking for the answer to this question.

And he was just sitting in it.

And it's a forest covered in monarch
butterflies, more beautiful and

wonderful than he could have ever
imagined than anyone had imagined.

And for me, this is just a, a very
small picture of what is to come

for us as the children of God.

We have a lot of questions in our life and
we may get some answers and we may not.

But we also have more than just questions.

We've been given a promise that God
will someday make a new heaven and a

new Earth, and that all that is broken
and unknown, that that will be restored.

And we can marvel at God's majesty and
greatness and the ways we understand it

now through creation in little children
and the work he does in our lives.

But someday we will finally be able to
sit in his presence and we will fully

comprehend the meaning of this psalm
and know how Majestic is his name.