So the thought I’m thinking on this week is this: Human beings are not meant to fully understand how God works. No matter how hard to we try, how badly we want answers and want to know how it’s possible, human beings will never be able to fully comprehend our omnipotent, omnipresent God.
I have heard people talking about their troubles and sometimes saying things like “but I’m sure God has bigger things to worry about than my little thing…” And I think to myself…well that’s really making the assumption that God is limited or has some maximum capacity for the amount of things He can have His hands in at any given time. God is way bigger than that little box we put Him in when we think that way.
Fortunately for us, that’s not the way God works. How can He be in all places and times at once, hearing all of our prayers, laments, and praises all at once? THE WORLD WILL NEVER KNOW. It is divine power that is exclusively his, and we are the blessed recipients of that powerful love. Can’t we just feel that instead of struggle as a species with challenging it’s validity because we can’t backtrack and cite the formula that makes it possible?
Human beings want knowledge, we want to know why/how/where/when. The more knowledge you have, the better. Of course, knowledge is necessary. You need to know how plumbing works so that when you can’t find toilet paper in 2020, you don’t start shoving paper towels and wet wipes down those pipes and cause your own personal Indoor Great Flood of 2020. Yes, there are things we all need to know and things we all need to know the reasoning behind. By the way, rumor has it that even “flushable” wet wipes really should not be flushed. I’m just saying.
I don’t think this type of understanding is possible with God, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. We can understand a lot about God – that He loves us, that He calls us to love others, that He sacrificed His son for us so that we could know Him and receive clear direction on how to love one another. It’s important that we take the time to get to know Him deeply. However, it’s not really possible to comprehend just how God can love all of us, infinitely, all the time, unlimited by time or space. We can’t understand how God loves like that and works that way because we are human, imperfect beings that aren’t capable of it ourselves. Understanding completely the ways of that love and presence is beyond our brain power capacity and we can choose, or not choose, to trust in Him and believe that He is that powerful (without having a human-logic-friendly formula to explain it to us). We can simply remain in awe over it and be thankful for it.
What we do have to help in that area is the Bible, and thank God for that. It is packed full of God’s story, our story, and sufficient knowledge for us to trust and grow in relationship with Him.
Like I said, we can choose or not choose to believe. In one of my previous blogs I wrote about how trusting God and loving one another can be difficult. That goes right back to how our brains are wired, what kind of explanations we require to deem something as the truth, and how much more naturally it comes to depend on ourselves as the self-righteous leaders of our largely self-focused lives.
So the point of all this rambling is that we need to let go of the feeling that in order to believe, we have to find a way to put God in the box that we understand. We’re in God’s box and He understands how it all works, we don’t need to have all the answers. He’s way too big to fit in any of our boxes and that’s good – remain in awe over it.
Speaking of not having answers – can anyone tell me why the overall shorts that are coming back in style are form fitting and made of stretchy denim? I got all excited about overalls making a comeback and tried some on at the store and could not figure out what was so terribly different from the overalls of the past. I remember overall shorts being loose, comfortable, pockets, all good things. Not so anymore. So I Googled about my confusion. Is my illusion just what the articles are referring to when they say “how to not look 5 years old when wearing overalls as an adult in 2020”? Because if loose, comfortable overalls are the kind that make you look 5 years old…maybe the kids are on the right track here. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it…or change it. The hunt for comfy overalls continues…stay tuned.
Love the Belly of the Whale 