“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth…he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.  

‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”

Acts 17:24-25,28

’Tis true ladies, He who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth. Not only did He speak the heavens and the earth and the creatures into being, and lovingly mold man from the dust of the earth (Genesis 1-2). Our God sustains all He made, as surely as the world spins. He did not create and walk away from the grandeur. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17). If this were the kingdom-of-me, I can only imagine what things would be like.

Think of it—the earth faithfully rotates once every 24 hours on its axis without missing a beat, as surely as it completes one revolution around the sun in every year, give or take a little to factor in leap year. The seasons arrive on time, more or less. Consider the stars: “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name” (Isaiah 41:26). 

Nor did God create man, stand back in awe of this creature in His image, and exit stage left. No siree! Paul dips into Athenian poetry to explain that it is in the one true God that we live and breathe and move; indeed, we have our being. As Adam Clarke’s online commentary explains: “we are, ie we continue to be because of his continued, present, all-pervading, and supporting energy.” And since their poets say we are ‘his offspring’, it would make no sense to think we are carved wood or stone or metal.  

Our God is both transcendent and immanent—“permanently pervading and sustaining the universe” (Oxford Dictionary online), hence: His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness (2 Peter 1:3).

Remember the song we used to sing as kids: “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”? That’s it—God’s got the little bitty baby—you and me sister—the whole world in His hands! 

Nancy P