Breathless...Wordless

Sometimes, I get the tiniest glimpses of how very great our God is. And when I do, I simply can't breathe.

Try wrapping your mind around this: Consider an expert. Any field of study. Just for an example, let's go with science, specifically biology. How many experts--people who have committed their lives to the study of biology--would it take to form a team that knew all that is known about biology? Certainly not one man, not even one great man, would know all there is to know about just this one subject. Probably not even 10 men, or 100.

But God knows all that man has discovered about biology. And, he knows all that man has not yet discovered about biology.

And he also knows all that there is to know--both what man knows and has yet to know--about physics, and mathematics, and languages, and sociology...

There is not one subject on which God is not a complete expert. Not one.

If I dedicated my entire life to the pursuit of complete knowledge of just one language--say, my native tongue, English--I would still not learn all that there is to learn of this subject.

Can you feel the weight of the comparison? Not even one subject can be truly mastered by man, yet God holds mastery over them all. And not even because He learned it, but because He created it.

How infinite is that mind? How vast is that kind of creativity? Even considering this humbles me. And I'm pretty sure that's the right response. I'm pretty sure that is what God was going for when He began to speak to Job at the end of that book. Have you read those final chapters lately? Go, now, and do so. I'll print some at the end of this post to get you started. Read, and tell me if you don't end up humbled, just as the psalmist did:

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,

the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4, NIV)

Or David, in Psalm 139:

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of sand. (NIV)

Consider how vast are the very thoughts of God. Consider just His knowledge (we'll save His attributes and kindnesses toward us for another day). Consider, and remember your true place in this universe.

Placing her hand over her mouth,
-J

Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:
…Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone-
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt'?
Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place...?
…Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?
…What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm,
to water a land where no man lives,
a desert with no one in it,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland
and make it sprout with grass?
Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?
From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?
Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?
Can you loose the cords of Orion?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?
Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and cover yourself with a flood of water?
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?
Who endowed the heart with wisdom
or gave understanding to the mind?
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
when the dust becomes hard
and the clods of earth stick together?
Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
and satisfy the hunger of the lions
when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in a thicket?
Who provides food for the raven
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?
...
Then Job answered the LORD:
"I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?
I put my hand over my mouth.
I spoke once, but I have no answer—
twice, but I will say no more."
--Job 38:1, 4-12, 16-19, 24-41; 40:3-5, NIV

(c) 2009