How Big is Your God?
How big is your God? Do you feel like you can you comprehend him fully? Does he fit inside your neat little “box?” Evylyn Underhill once said, “If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshipped.”
I’d like to confess something. There are aspects of God that are mysterious to me. I do not fully understand the Trinity. I sort of get it and I can sort of describe it, but I struggle to fully comprehend the doctrine of the Trinity in all its glory. I also struggle to understand exactly how God’s sovereignty and human responsibility coexist in the same world. Why does God, who is the very definition of love, not put an immediate stop to evil? The list of things that I don’t understand about God goes on and on.
You might think that these things would make me uncomfortable. And in a way they do, because I like to know everything and understand everything. But in another very real sense, the fact that there are things that God does (or ways that he simply “is”) that are beyond my comprehension is a comfort to me.
These mysteries remind me that God is not a mere invention of human minds. They also remind me that God is not just a childish genie that morphs into whatever I want him to be at a particular moment. He is really real. He’s not a shallow reflection of humanity, but something so much bigger and better and more magnificent. If he really is all the Scriptures claim he is, then of course there ought to be aspects of his being that are mysterious to me, a mere human.
If I’m convinced that God is real (which I definitely am!) and that he is the God of the Bible, who walked on earth in the person of Jesus (which I am!), then the fact that I can’t fully comprehend him isn’t really the end of the world.Through the Scriptures, God has revealed to us everything that is vital for us to know about him. We know that he is all powerful. We know that he always keeps his promises. We know that God is merciful. We know that he is loving. We know that he is forgiving; so forgiving that he sent Jesus to die in our place for our sin on the cross.
Yes, there are mysteries that are beyond me, but they do not affect my salvation. In a way, they are reassuring and delightful. I love that my God is bigger than me. That he isn’t “me.”
I love that I don’t need to fully resolve all of the mysteries of God in order for him to be real. He exists whether I understand him or not. He is all powerful whether I understand how or not. He is supremely loving, whether I understand how or not. It is so nice to be able to accept that some mysteries are beyond me, instead of freaking out because I can’t fully comprehend the Creator and Sustainer of everything that exists.
So the next time Satan tempts you to despair, or to doubt the existence of God because of some mystery that you don’t understand, take the opportunity to glorify God. To enjoy his “bigness.” To thank him that despite being unimaginably bigger than your mind can contain, he loves you.
Jesse
‘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)
