Tag Archives: Jesus

Getting a Grip

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Grasping the enormity of God is impossible; He is too big, too much.  We do well to only get a small grip.  We know He exists; we just can’t wrap our mind around Him.  For a number of years, my response to the impossibility of fully knowing God was to tell myself (and everybody else) that there was no God.  I’d say, “I’m not going to believe in God unless I can fully understand Him.”  Then my seatmate on a plane said, “Buddy, if you can fully understand it, it isn’t God.”  Good point.  And, there are a lot of things we don’t fully understand (like, for me, how this blog thing works) and yet we know they exist and use them.

That guy’s remark helped me stop being such a skeptic, and dare to be a real skeptic in the original sense of the word.  “Skeptic” comes from the Greek word, skopos, which means to look deeply and carefully into something to ascertain the truth of it.   If you think about it, it’s much more exhilarating to look into things you do not understand fully.   That’s why it’s fun to watch a child learning about soap bubbles.  That’s why it’s exciting to swim with dolphins.  That’s what motivates scientists.  Probing what we do not fully  understand fills us with awe and wonder.

God exists.  He created everything, knows everything, has power over everything.  And for some reason we cannot fully understand, He loves you.  We cannot fully grasp God.  But get a grip on Him and let your heart be filled with wonder and awe.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.   Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)[1]

[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Oh My God!!!

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“Papa, wake up!  You have to see this!”

I fought my way out of a dream and gradually put the world back together.  We were in a small cabin on the northern shores of Lake Michigan.  The last few embers of the evening’s fire were winking in the fireplace.  Must have been after midnight.  My daughter pulled at my sleeve and whispered, “Get Mom and come down to the lake, quickly!”

We stumbled down the darkened steps, gripping the handrail by the path and emerged out onto the rocky beach.  Stretched out above us were vast curtains of emerald green, flashing brightly and undulating as though moved by an unseen, powerful hand.  The stars were so vivid they glittered on the surface of the lake and yet they paled behind this spectacular display of Northern Lights.  My heart ached as I tried to absorb such incredible beauty.  It was so grand, so beyond explanation or description.  We hugged ourselves against the chill breeze and gaped, spellbound.  Just that day we had reveled in our mighty plans – swimming, sailing, hiking, cooking.  Now we knew we were impossibly small and powerless, irrelevant.

Maybe you remember the first time you saw pictures from the Hubble telescope of the vast expanses of space, the purplish clouds of stuff that turn out to be uncountable galaxies, each one of which would dwarf our Milky Way.  If you have never seen these, click this: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/magellanic_cloud/pr2006055a/large_web/

Try to imagine how much bigger the universe is than the small slice of it you are seeing.  If our solar system was superimposed on that picture it would only be a tiny speck.  Stand on a midnight shore and look up into that picture.  Let your heart be still and stretch your imagination.  Try to “see” that deep, that far.

Now, read this:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
Isaiah 40:21-22