Sometimes I need to be reminded who this world belongs to. Sometimes it seems that it belongs to everyone except me; people whose ideas of how to live life are diametrically opposed to my own. Sometimes I think the world belongs to me, and I would like everyone to think the way I think and act the way I act.

But “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters” (Psalm 24:1,2). The earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in the earth is also the Lord’s. This is unequivocally good. He founded it. He established it. He knows what makes it function successfully, and he loves all the creatures who dwell in it; even those who don’t love and appreciate him, or me. He loves those whom I don’t love and appreciate. All people are safe and treasured in his hands.

This is a comfort when I feel alienated. It’s a reminder when I feel authoritarian. It gives perspective in those hours and days when everything is falling apart and I can’t grasp the loose ends much less braid it all back together.

The earth is the Lord’s. I belong to the Lord. You belong to the Lord. Because this is true, you and I are safe in the Lord’s hands.