As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. (Ecclesiastes 11:5)
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we
speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you
people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken
to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I
speak of heavenly things? (John 3:10-12)
Every so often, someone
shares a picture of the earth as seen from Saturn: a tiny dot almost lost
amidst the dust of the rings that circle the huge planet, reminding us that we
are from a tiny, insignificant nothing of a planet orbiting a relatively
insignificant star off at the comparative edge of an arm of a galaxy. We’re
nobody, we’re nothing. We think far too much of ourselves, they tell us. And,
of course, they don’t go far enough, because the Milky Way is just one of millions
(or billions) of galaxies, a tiny speck in the universe, and if you listen to
some, our universe is just a speck in the collection of universes.
If we can’t get our minds
around that, how are we ever to get our minds around how insignificant the
thousands or billions of years (depending on your beliefs) that count as the
history of the universe are – a mere eyeblink within eternity. And if we can’t
understand these things, how can we ever hope to have the slightest clue about
God. Today’s passages and the last couple chapters of Job bring this home: God
is beyond our understanding.
Some people seem to think
this means it’s silly to even consider what God might be like. If He is, as
Scripture and our apparently insignificant place in the universe suggests, that
far beyond us, it’s useless to consider. Of course, the same people who suggest
this are the people who have no problem with out exploring, examining, and
speculating about other planets, other galaxies, time, the laws of physics, and
all manner of things that are equally beyond our grasp. In fact, speculation is
now being done about the existence of other “universes” and about what happened
before the beginning of this one.
Perhaps more importantly…
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John14:26)
The person without the
Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but
considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are
discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the
Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject
to merely human judgments, for,
“Who has known the
mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”
But we
have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:14-16)
Now this
is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)
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