The greatest enemy in the relationship between God and man is the sin of pride. It will deceive the heart of man every time. Often possessors of secret faults our pride can make itself invisible and it is as though we lash out in the dark at an unseen enemy. Nowhere can pride better cloud the picture than when it works to obscure the connection between God and man.

Most agree in theory that but for Jesus Christ the relationship is tenuous indeed. The man and ant comparison is inadequate. The gap between God and man is the difference between the finite and the infinite. It is the difference between One who can see millions of light years in space, and one whose vision is limited by the horizon.

Everyone acknowledges this great difference in theory, but what happens in life? Where does God fit in? How is He thought of? Look at the average American man. He has a good life, good job. There are people who are less important than he is. In his own little sphere at home, he is the boss (or thinks himself so). His wife and children respect him, and look to him for guidance and protection. He seems to be the center around which the whole universe turns. You can see what a feeling of complacency this makes for. His ideas about himself can get all out of proportion. He does not travel much and has little comprehension of the earths immensity. He does not recognize that there are six billion others like him, each of whom feels he is the center of the universe.

Take this modern American, however, and make a Christian out of him and see the feeling of self-importance grow. This man of mediocre ability has the opportunity and privilege not given to many; the privilege of standing up and being listened to. He has become a kind of guardian of other peoples? morals. There’s a touch of the martyr about him too; he doesn’t allow himself to do some of the things that other people do, i.e. stays out of politics, avoids the military. This is painless because of the society in which we live, all built around rights of minorities. All this lends special importance to him. He’s respected by his friends, does not harm anyone, may even do good works. Says his prayers every night, mostly repetitious, night after night; said automatically, often swiftly to God, his kindly benefactor. May make some trivial personal requests.

In his self-importance, he forgets he is praying to the wrathful God of Israel, overseer of the universe of unlimited properties. He forgets that he enjoys and has a relationship with a God so far beyond his ken, with whom this could be no relationship at all except for the act of almost unbelievable dedication: the perfect life and sacrifice of the son of God. See how easy it is for the apparently good moral Christian to raise himself so high in his esteem as to create a blasphemous and fictitious relationship between himself and God. There is a cure.

Picture a desolate beach in late summer; N.E. wind; few clouds; ceaseless pounding of the surf; whistle of the wind; myriad forms of life eking out an existence on the fringe of the ocean; millions of little shellfish burying; thousands of fiddlers finding microscopic food in the surf; shells worn smooth; sand grains uncountable, coarse on beach, then smooth. God knows about it all - each fiddler, each grain of sand. These shifting sands existed eons before we were born and will continue after we’re gone. The ceaseless pounding will continue. In a scene so vast, covering time immemorial, the wonder is that we are noticed at all. We’re but the flicker of a candle on the face of the earth,-then gone. In the face of such a scene, we can only fall at the feet of our creator and contemplate in wonder the privilege he has given us to say with reasonable hope, as the multitudes did to Jesus, Hosanna to the Highest. Save we beseech Thee.