Recently as I was doing parish outreach visits, I came across a gentlemen with a rather interesting question. Rhetorical and somewhat cynical, to be sure; but a great opportunity to discuss the things of God with a lost sheep.
As this fellow, an African-American probably in his 50s, stood outside his house, I introduced myself. Very soon he raised this objection. “Alright. The Tower of Babel. Why should God even care? If He is so great and infinite, and human beings are just ants, how does their little building project matter?” Thus spake the ant.
So I, but another measly ant, took up the question. “David felt extremely small when he, in Psalm 8, looked up into the heavens and beheld the sun, the moon, the stars.” And so he exclaimed, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” Indeed, Father Abraham confessed that he was “but dust and ashes,” and Isaiah wondered at the nations as a mere “drop in a bucket and as the very small dust of the balances.”
I sense he was a bit flat-footed and struck that the Bible had actually considered these kinds of things. “But here’s the thing, Malcolm [pseudonym], the wonder is that God actually took such interest in His creation, and especially one speck of matter on which he impressed His very own image.” And when these image-bearing creatures rebel against Him, defy and dishonor Him, indeed, He cares! In fact, He is profoundly angry. And thus, Babel.
We talked for some time as the autumn sun set amid the changing colors. I got his number, parted from him, and thanked the Lord for another rebel ant who was open to talk. May God confound and confuse poor Malcolm, so that he may throw off the wisdom of this world for the “foolishness of God.”
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