Immeasurable

I recently went for a late night walk. As I was walking, I couldn't help but look up and notice the stars. It made me think about the simple yet complex beauty that is the creation of God. The way that the stars twinkle in the sky. The way the wind blows through the trees. The way the river runs through the stream. The way that the moon causes the water to glisten and sparkle. All of it is perfect, and instills a sense of satisfaction. On one night, all was right with the world. Everything was still, and crying out to God. As I looked back up at the sky, I realized that no matter how massive it might appear to me, I was only staring at a small portion of it. From my perspective in Rochester, New York, the sky seemed seemed so gigantic. Yet I knew, there was so much more than I could possibly comprehend. Witnessing the night sky illuminate the earth made me feel so truly and incredibly small.

In many ways, this is what God is like.

In our short time on earth, we are only able to understand a minute amount of information about God. Scholars have spent centuries, examining, studying, and contemplating His character. We have thousands of books on the topic, but alas, it is like standing in a field and looking up at the stars. What you see is beautiful. What you see is vast. What you see is beyond imagination. But it is only what you can see from where you are standing. There is much more sky elsewhere in the world. No one can possibly see all of it at once.

Just when you think you've figured out the sky, you realize there is an unexplored universe behind it. A universe that is infinitely complex, with countless galaxies and cosmos, filled things that we don't even know about and can't explain through human rational. Outer space stretches far beyond what we are able to grasp, and it takes years just to travel to what we are able to see. The extension of this void is something we can never find the end of. Because quite simply, there is no end. 

We may think we know God, but we have barely started to unravel his mysteries. No matter how long we live, we can never know everything there is to know about God. But of course, if we could know him completely, then he wouldn't really be God, now would he? A god that is comprehensible isn't really god at all. 

Why do I say all of this? Because the more I study God, the more I realize how much I don't know about Him. And to me, that's what makes God beautiful. That, is why I call him God. Because He is more than I can ever know. 

Now here's the most baffling part: Picture everything I just described. All those planets, stars, galaxies, and other objects of outer space. Then picture planet Earth amongst the blackness of space. Something comparable to a marble thrown into an olympic-sized swimming pool, but even smaller than that. Now picture you, standing on Earth, gazing back up at the stars, trying to figure out the sky.

The God who made all of that (and more), who placed you on the earth for a purpose, and knows you personally, cares for you. 

I don't even know where to begin with that statement. How can an insignificant sinner like me, be loved (amongst billions of other people) by the very same God who created the sun, moon, and stars? It doesn't make sense. 

Thankfully, it never will.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

-Revelation 22:13