Sad to see the
Olympics end?
Every other
year, whether Winter Games or Summer, it's thrilling when the Olympics arrive
and captivate the world's collective attention for two full weeks. But most of
us are at least a little glum to see them go, even if it does mean we finally
get to catch up on some sleep.
There's a
bigness to the Olympiad that fascinates us. It comes with a kind of
transcendence that taps into a profound longing in the human soul. On display
are the world's best athletes. From most of the world's geopolitical nations. The
world's eye fixed on a single object as is rarely the case outside of war. From
our limited vantage, few things seem to bring out humanity's oneness, and feel
as globally significant in a good way, as the Olympic Games.
But as great as
the Olympics are, there is something infinitely greater — Someoneinfinitely
greater. The grandeur of the Games points us to the grandeur of God. The taste
of transcendence they bring helps us see there's a Bigness and Magnitude that
doesn't come and go for a couple weeks every couple years, but is here for our
enjoyment forever — together with people from every tribe and tongue and
nation.
John Piper
helps us learn this Olympic lesson in the omnipotence of God:
During the
Summer Olympics one of the camera maneuvers taught me something about the
greatness of God. The opening and closing ceremonies were thrilling to
most of the people who saw them. The sheer magnitude of the crowds and
fireworks and music were a once-in-a-lifetime experience of bigness and
grandeur.
Those of us who
watched it on television could feel some of the thrill when the camera was high
enough to take in the whole great sweep of the coliseum. But then something
strange happened. The camera continued to recede into the sky where it was
perched in the helicopter, and the coliseum became smaller and smaller until it
was just a blurry dot on the ground.
As I watched
that happen I was filled with joy in the greatness of God. I said to
myself, "Look how thrilled we are with a coliseum full of color and sound.
Look how we stand in wonder. Look how we shout and clap and feel excitement at
the splendor of it all. But look again from God's perspective. Compared to
his power and splendor, it's a blurry dot on the ground."
God puts
on a minor display of his strength and splendor every morning as he brings the
sun up over the horizon — 865,000 miles thick, 1.3 million times heavier than
the earth, blazing on its cool edges at one million degrees Centigrade! Every
morning has its opening ceremonies to thrill us with the power and the glory
of God and fill us with hope that one day we will enter a land where
all the wonders that have inspired us on this little earth will be like blurry
dots in comparison with the magnificence of God's eternal closing ceremonies.
And every
night God puts out a little puppet show of his majesty in the sky,
with Perseus and Andromeda and Hercules and Orion and Leo the Lion and Draco
the Dragon sporting about in the local galaxy 100,000 light years across.
"Day to
day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge." And what
they teach so forcefully is that God is infinite in power. Nothing
that has ever awed you can compare to him. He is God Almighty! Nothing
can stay his hand. He does whatever he pleases. He is the Potter and the universe
is his clay.
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