Thursday, January 1, 2009

God is Bigger

I remember at LCBC this summmer they were doing a series about different characteristics of God. There was one particular sermon that sticks out in my mind, and I don't really recall what characteristic they were focusing on that day or anything, but at the beginning of the sermon, David Ashcraft asks who had been to the Grand Canyon. He said how gorgeous it is and how much he loved visiting there, and then he said that he wanted to show the people who have never been there just how awesome it is. So he takes his piece of gum out of his mouth and tries to mold it into the shape of the Grand Canyon as a representation. Well obviously, this is just absurd because a piece of gum does not compare to the beauty of the Grand Canyon.
It makes me think about how we can't possibly understand the scope of God's nature. Any explanation that we have of God falls short because there's no way to describe that kind of immensity, that scope of timelessness.
God is just that big.
So I just think that God is way bigger than any "doctrines of grace" or doctrines of Arminianism. This is something Joy and I talked about recently. It was interesting that she brought it up because I had been thinking it. She posed the question, "What if free will and God's elect coincide?" Maybe they do. In a more easily understandable example... sometimes we pray to God as Father, sometimes as Savior, as King, as Lover of our souls. You can see the difference especially with girls who are taught that Jesus is their bridegroom. Jesus is, in essence, the perfect boyfriend. Well, guys certainly don't view Jesus that way. I know that people have different roles also, but not in the complex way that God does. God plays all roles at all times. He meets you right where you need him. I can sometimes be a friend to my mom, but mostly, I'm a daughter. We are stuck in those roles to one another. But God is all types of relationships, all forms of love at the same time.
So isn't it possible that God is all things, and you can approach him differently depending on who you are. I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm stepping on ultimate truths because that is definitely not my aim, but what if predestination appeals to me because I like the view of God's love securing me. It isn't forced love to me, but rather God grabbed me so I couldn't fall off the cliff. He loved me that much that He didn't just reach out his hand, He grabbed me! On the other hand, some people like to feel a little more freedom in choice, and so if they want to feel that God held out his hand, and they chose to take it... well, I used to argue that this was a fundamental difference in the nature of God. But what if it isn't? What if God is both views put together?
I wouldn't expect our logic to understand it because God is God, and we are not. He is so much bigger than anything we can understand! And that is AWESOME!

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