“Don’t think too highly of yourselves, but take a sane view…” (Romans 12:3, Beck)
A few years ago, while visiting the Science Museum of Minnesota, I was introduced to a powerful pictorial representation of the universe – from the minute domain of subatomic particles to the in-com-prehensible scale of interstellar space. The display is called “Powers of Ten.”
At a scale of 1:1023 meters (i.e., one meter to ten to the twenty-third power meters), our entire galaxy is but a speck. “Powers of Ten” displays it. At 1022 meters, the Milky Way’s spiral arms come into view. Our solar system becomes visible at a scale of 1016 meters. We can discern Earth at a scale of 1012 meters and the United States at a scale of 107 meters. At a scale of 100 meters you can view the palm of your hand at actual size. And then we scale downward. At a scale of 10-2 meters, we can see blood vessels. At 10-5 meters, individual cells are discernible. At 10-8 meters, strands of DNA come into view and at 10-10 meters, individual atoms. You might see a proton at 10-15 meters. And at 10-16, you enter the strange world of quarks. It depends upon your scale of view.
At the beginning of the year it is, perhaps, time to renew our sense of scale. It is easy to get out of whack! Some of us are inclined to large-scale views. We think of the swirling arms of the Milky Way, beyond the horizon of everyday life. We muse upon (what seem to us) “ultimate” issues and “ultimate” realities. Others of us feel irresistibly drawn to smaller-scale views. We focus upon (what seem to us) the practical minutiæ that crowd our calendars with busy-ness. Strangely, many of us become committed to our preference in scale of view. We think that “our” scale is the only really proper perspective. We may even come to disdain alternative viewpoints – “big picture” people or “detail” enthusiasts.
“Powers of Ten” is breathtaking. It is important to remember, however, that mission happens, if it is to happen at all, at a scale of 100 meters. This is the scale of actual size. This is the scale of the real world: where you might bump into your actual neighbor with his actual spiritual need, out on the street for a stroll. This is the world of the actual poor and the actual unreached – the real world in which we are called to make a real difference.
It is important, I suppose, to think at large scales occasionally; we gain a view of God’s sweeping activity through the ages and throughout the world. It is good to think at smaller scales from time to time, too; we focus then upon the important details that keep our offices open and our desks, hopefully, clean. But mission happens in real-time and in real-life: in face-to-face encounters, eyeball to eyeball, with people who need to meet the Savior. This is the scale of 100 meters. Don’t let “big pictures” – or comfortable “details” – keep you from it for long.
(You can see an online version of “Powers of Ten” at http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/ java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html.)