Awe

Almost without warning, July has crept up upon us. As I get older, I notice that time is not nearly as slow as it used to be. I used to look forward to summers as school holidays, long day filled with play and being outdoors. Now as an adult, every day seems much like every other. Go to work, eat, watch TV, go to bed.

But one thing that should be fresh and new every day is your relationship with Jesus Christ. As the promises of life fade into the mundane, we find that the promises of Jesus are always filled with expectancy and surprise. The deeper you go into Jesus and your relationship with Him, you will find that you have yet to hit the bottom of the pool. “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” (1Co 2:10)

No matter deep you go into God, you will always find that He is deeper. You will soon find yourself outside the realm of language when trying to describe Him. Once you think you understand something in the Faith, you find that just underneath it are a host of new things to discover.

It used to be that we believed that the four elements were the foundation of all things, elements like water, earth, air and fire. And for a time, we thought we could turn lead into gold if we just had the right combination.

Then we came to understand the nature of molecules and chemical interactions. These were the true elements, like carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, and we built a table to classify them, exploring their commonalities and differences. Finding new elements was always widely celebrated.

Then we discovered that these elements possessed atomic structure, of protons, neutrons, and electrons, circling each other, forming bonds and shedding them. We gained new understanding about the universe, and the structure of matter.

When we began to examine these, we found that these are built from smaller particles, like quarks and forces. Our machines to study these things became ever bigger, building and testing in the great Hadron Collider with miles-wide rings of electro-magnetic energy to shoots these sub-microscopic particles at each other to see that came out.

And then when we looked into these things, we found even smaller pieces to study, like quanta, and quantum mechanics. Energy and matter converged and began to question the nature of all things, why they came into being, and the forces that hold them together. I imagine once we think we understand those things, we will find still smaller pieces that make up those.

This all comes from a God who is infinite (in- meaning not, and finite meaning limited, because we don’t have positive words to describe God’s nature, because we couldn’t understand them if we did) and in His omniscience (except the “omni-“s), is infinitely creative.

To study life and nature using the tools of science involves only a fraction of the whole. Life and all things of earth could occupy our scientific curiosity for a lifetime, but there is an entire universe, filled with stars, planets, and who knows what else. Even this is a pale reflection of the true nature of God. What ought to be our response to this?

Awe. Wonder. Worship of the God Who is higher than I. Let the whole world fall before Him, whom the stars themselves worship (Job 38:7). Is it any wonder that beholding the night sky brings on these feelings? Discovering our place in the vastness of it all, can we resist Him? He becomes the one Hope we hold on to. Could we? For God alone is God. All owe their existence to Him. How mighty and awesome is the Lord our God!

And yet this is the God who sends Jesus. All the awesomeness of the Holy God of Heaven, encapsulated into a Man. Words again fail to describe the ability of God to enter into the human space, to live as one of us. That He came as a man at all points to God’s respect for His highest creation, for it was as a man, not a lion, or a dog, or an elephant, not a volcano, or an pillar of fire, or a Voice. But it was Jesus, a man like you and me, and only in appearance. This same Jesus came to us, to show us the “secret” of life, to unlock for us the ability to understand and have a relationship with the Holy God of Heaven. He made that way open by His own sacrifice, because our biggest problem wasn’t ignorance, but sin.

God I am not worthy to continue to write, for Your love for us is too much.

We are not worthy of the sacrifice You gave for us. And if we weren’t in awe before, now we must keep silent before you.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psa 46:10)