From the top of a towering big-city skyscraper a woman looked down on the streets and sidewalks below. Seeing the people moving about, she observed that they looked to her like ants. Then she added, "I imagine this is the way people look to God."

No, no, not so, my dear lady - you are wrong about this! God sees each of us and all of us life-size. He is not far away that we should appear small to him. He is very near, and he sees us as we are.

Some people have thought we are pretty small, but God doesn't see us that way. One of the hymn writers has said we are "weak worms of the dust," and a philosopher that "we are not more than a bubble." But God says that we are only "a little lower than angels," and "crowned with glory and honor." Life-size, as God sees it, is pretty big. After all, we are the creatures he sent his Son into the world to die for. He looks on us as really worth something.

In worship, we are saying, "Thou, God, seest me." As we say this today, we can be sure that he sees us in the full dimension of what we are. May God help us to see ourselves this same way. For, ultimately understood, it is as we value ourselves that we manage our lives - in the decisions we make, the directions we take. In our worship today, may we see ourselves as the persons God sees as he gives his Son to redeem us.