Our universe is so tiny.

Wait! It cannot be tiny. The James Webb Space Telescope tells us just the opposite: how terribly vast the universe is. There are billions of galaxies out there which are just like our Milky Way. And get this: each one contains literally millions or even trillions of stars.

On the other hand, the First Reading says, “the whole universe is as a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.” Obviously that scripture writer hadn't looked through the James Webb!

Alright, is the universe large or small?

Imagine this. Picture an old fashioned weighing scale with “pans“ on either side.* Now add just a single grain of sand to one of the pans. Does the scale move? No. Now add the vast totality of all that exists (in other words, the entire universe) on one side, and imagine God on the other side.

God outweighs this universe, big time.

Get ready for the worst part. Lodged within this balance are you and me. We are the size of microbes. Impossible that so huge a God could or actually would love microorganisms like us.

Alright, but don’t be discouraged. The greatest surprise in the universe is waiting:

You love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? … You spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls, for your imperishable spirit is in all things! First Reading

God’s imperishable spirit is in each grain of dust and each one is beloved to God. Look, reader: you and I are beloved to God. We are cherished by the “Lord and lover of souls.”

Now look at Zacchaeus in Sunday’s Gospel. He was small of stature, so short he had to climb a tree just to see over the crowd to Jesus. And Jesus laughed out loud! He said, in effect, “Zacchaeus, come down quick. I want to have dinner in your house tonight, not out here on a tree branch!”

Zacchaeus was a tax-collecter, officials who were selfish and in bad repute. Did God therefore withhold love and grace from him?

Not at all.

The Christ of God came in person to Zaccaeus' door and waited patiently for him to scramble down. Are you and I bold enough to have the master of the universe over to dinner tonight? Even though our clothes may be torn and dirty? Even small and unworthy as we are?

Let us try it.