Big men and tiny dogs. I have seen more of this combo lately than I ever recall. I have a bonus son who is 6’2”, weighs about 240 lbs and has a dog that weighs 5 pounds. My cousin’s daughter and her husband just bought a mini dachshund puppy. He weighs 2.5 pounds and they took him for a walk outside. On a leash. It was hysterical! It looked like they were walking a hamster. Of course, for every 2 feet that they walked, they had to stop because strangers who were fascinated with the scene and the dog would comment or take pictures.  

Many tiny dogs have a big dog complex. It is as if these little things don’t know that their stature puts them at peril with human and bigger dog giants. They bark as though they are quite ferocious, and may even instigate playful, or aggressive, interactions. They carry toys twice as big as they are, which can be pretty entertaining to watch as they run with their prized treasure in their mouth, but it drags the ground so much that they end up tripping over it and planting face first into the ground. These mighty mites also love big! They can give just as much support, attention, presence and affection as the biggest of canines.

When thinking about how huge God is in comparison to us, it reminds me of the dichotomy of the smallness of us, His adored creations. When I’m in an airplane, people become invisible at about 3400 feet of altitude. Houses disappear at about 14,000 feet and cities are mere shadows at 30,000 feet. (Don’t check my math too carefully.) This is all within our stratosphere! Pictures of earth from satellites and spacecraft show land, oceans and clouds only. Yet God is beyond and above even those views. And yet He cares not just about each of us individually, but He even keeps up with the number of hairs on our individual heads – no matter how rapidly that number may be declining!

You and I are precious and special and loved and valued to the point that Jesus walked into the mess of our lives just to shout to us: “God cares about you so much! And He is making a way for you to be with Him forever!” How mind-blowing is that?! I have to be straight with you – when I am walking through my day, it never enters my mind if I am stepping on tiny bugs, nor, quite honestly, do I care. God not only cares, He is invested in us! He works things for our good for those who know and love Him (Romans 8:28). He rejoices over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). He loves us with an everlasting love (1 John 4:16).

When David went to fight Goliath, we tend to think of David as being the tiny dog against the giant. However, it occurred to me that from God’s standpoint, there truly wasn’t much size difference between the two characters. I mean after all, to humans, how much size difference is there to us between a ladybug and a house fly? (~4mm) They are both very small.
In the David/Goliath matchup, Goliath asks “what am I, a dog, that you should come at me with a stick?” (I Samuel 17:43) Well…! My mind pictures tiny dog, big God. And David makes me want to do a hype dance when he says “I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down…This very day I will give… the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel” (vv. 45-46) It reminds me of when kids say “my dad’s bigger than your dad!” Yep, our Heavenly Father is bigger than ANYTHING or ANYONE who is in our lives, our circles or stacked against us. He is on our side, and WE KNOW HE WINS IN THE END!! Woohoo and hallelujah!

In case you don’t remember, David kicks Goliath’s giant behind, in grand fashion. THAT is our God! We deserve to get tiny dog’s “big dog complex” because when we come against the Rottweilers and Bull Mastiffs in our lives, we have a giant of a God in our corner. He is leading us in our walk through life and defending us against whatever may come.

Sometimes we go off-leash and ignore our protector. But running back to our Father puts us back in the place of security. Psalm 91: 3-4 says that “Surely He will save you from the snare… He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.”

On the days we feel like a tiny dog, we need to pump ourselves up and remember that our giant of a God is with us. This should give us the confidence to put a little swag in our walk and a little spark in our bark!