God spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites that they are to set aside offerings for me. Receive the offerings from everyone who is willing to give. These are the offerings I want you to receive from them: gold, silver, bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet material; fine linen; goats’ hair; tanned rams’ skins; dolphin skins; acacia wood; lamp oil; spices for anointing oils and for fragrant incense; onyx stones and other stones for setting in the Ephod and the Breastpiece. Let them construct a Sanctuary for me so that I can live among them. You are to construct it following the plans I’ve given you, the design for The Dwelling and the design for all its furnishings.

First let them make a Chest using acacia wood: make it three and three-quarters feet long and two and one-quarter feet wide and deep. Cover it with a veneer of pure gold inside and out and make a molding of gold all around it. Cast four gold rings and attach them to its four feet, two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Make poles from acacia wood and cover them with a veneer of gold and insert them into the rings on the sides of the Chest for carrying the Chest. The poles are to stay in the rings; they must not be removed. (Exodus 25:1-15)

God cares about the details just as much as he cares about the big picture. God told Moses to rescue the people of Israel from Egypt. He told him what to say regarding the plagues. He would give him the Ten Commandments. But God also paid attention to the decorations in the Tabernacle, explaining the sorts of cloth to be used, details about the furniture, even the sorts of spices for the anointing oils. He explained how the ark was to be built in detail, and how it was supposed to be carried. God had very specific plans for how the Israelites were going to formally worship him.

There is nothing too small for God. Nothing about an individual is insignificant. If God concerned himself about the number of gold rings to attach to the ark of the covenant, if he bothered with the kind of wood to build it out of when that wood was going to be covered over with a layer of gold—and if the finished box would wind up behind curtains that only one man once a year would even see—no matter how much you may think both you and your concerns are insignificant—God finds them of great importance, perhaps more important than even you think. You are worth more to God than spice choices and furniture design.

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