Psalm 145:10-11 says, “All Your works shall praise You, O Lord … they shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of Your power.”

I have four sons. There was a period of time when my sons were a little too interested in a certain professional basketball player. He is one of the most popular athletes in America, and idolized by many in this nation. The NBA playoffs were in full swing. I heard this player’s name continually brought up by the press, by my sons, and by their friends.

I was with my family ministering on the Atlantic coast. We had just come in from the beach where the boys had tumbled and danced in the waves. As we dried off after our swim, I sat down with my three oldest boys for a talk with dad.

Pointing out the window, I questioned them. “Boys, that’s a massive ocean out there, isn’t it?”

In unison, they answered, “Yeah, dad.”

I continued, “You can only see about one or two miles of it, but the ocean actually goes on for thousands of miles.”

Wrapped in the warmth and safety of towels, the boys listened with wide eyes. “Wow!”

“And this one isn’t even the biggest ocean; there is another even bigger one called the Pacific Ocean. Then there are two more besides it.”

The boys all nodded in silent wonder as they listened to the power of the pounding surf now at high tide outside our window.

Knowing that to some degree my sons had grasped the overwhelming amount of water I had just described, I asked, “Boys, do you know God weighed all the water that you see, and all that I have just described, in the palm of His hand?” (See Isaiah 40:12.)

Their mouths and eyes registered genuine amazement. They had been impressed because this famous sports figure could palm a basketball! Now holding a basketball in one hand would seem insignificant.

“Do you know what else the Bible says about how great God is?” I asked.

“What, Dad?”

“The Bible declares God can measure the universe with the span of His hand” (Isa. 40:12). Holding my own hand before them, I demonstrated that a span was the distance from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my pinkie. “God can measure the universe in the distance from His thumb to the tip of His smallest finger!”

After relating all this scientific information in terms they could understand, I concluded, “So you are impressed with a man who can jump from the fifteen-foot-line on a basketball court and put a ball filled with air into a little hoop?”

They said, “We see it, dad!”

“What does this basketball player have that God did not give him?” I concluded.

They answered, “Nothing!”

Since then, their opinion of this man has changed from hero worship to healthy respect. In fact, their basketball cards are now called “prayer cards.” They are praying for the salvation of these men whom others see as heroes.

You can understand a little better now what God was really saying when He asked Job, “Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine” (Job 41:11).

Excerpted from The Fear of the Lord by John Bevere, Charisma House 1997, p. 23-24, 28-29. Www.charismahouse.com  Used with permission.