Everything Under His Feet

“You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:” Psalm 8:6.

The phrase “everything under his feet” has been really encouraging of late.

One of my elder sisters has been seriously ill for the last few weeks. I think it was a routine operation that developed complications. She was moved into an intensive care unit and the prognosis wasn’t encouraging. Visiting her was quite upsetting as she was heavily sedated, attached to a dozen different monitors and drips. She didn’t seem to be responding.

The words “everything under his feet” in the psalm leads on to talk about the fish of the sea and the birds of the air. It is reminder that God gave human beings authority over nature.

“Everything” includes everything. I was reminded of those bible heroes like Joshua who asked that the sun wouldn’t move so that he could finish his battle, or Elijah who prophesied a drought or Jesus who calmed a storm. They took a hold of the authority God gave them and their “everything” included the big things – the sun, the rain, the sea. They were big ”everything”s.

As I thought about my sister, I thought about some of the small things that are included in “everything” – the atoms, the molecules, the separate cells, the bacteria and viruses. All of these things are also part of the “everything under his feet”.

There is so much detail and complexity in the human body, it is a surprise that more things don’t go wrong with people every day! I prayed about these small “everything”s in my sister’s body that were causing problems and not functioning the way they should.

The news from home fluctuates. Yesterday she was improving sufficiently to have some of the monitors taken away and some of the drips removed. She was not so heavily sedated, had woken up just for a few minutes and opened her eyes.

Later on in the evening there had been a relapse and monitors and drips restored.

I continue to encourage myself with the knowledge that “everything” is beneath the feet of Christ. I may not always see it in the natural world, but that does not change the truth of it in the heavenlies.