Higher
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
Life is full of mysteries. Every day, tragedies occur and people scream out to God that life is not fair. As we reach out to others in their times of deepest need we would love to be able to offer an explanation, but we cannot. The problem of suffering has challenged humankind since the dawn of time and will continue to do so.
But the mysteries of life are not only at that end of the spectrum, because the beauties and wonders of life are just as mysterious. How can you explain the beauty of a flower, the wonder of a sunset or the majesty of the night sky? All these things are beyond our ability to understand or explain. However, we worship a God whose understanding is infinite and whose love knows no limits.
How should we respond to the knowledge that God is infinitely greater and wiser than we are? It would be easy to be overwhelmed by this. But a far better response would be to turn to God in worship and adoration with the knowledge that, in this life, we will never have the ability to understand everything. To use the language of the apostle Paul, at the moment “we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
God doesn’t want us to trudge through our lives burdened by all that we do not understand. He wants us to expand our understanding but always with the humility that acknowledges that his wisdom is infinitely beyond us. His desire is that we should live at peace with him and ourselves and with the confidence of knowing that, at the right time, we will be given the understanding that we need. In the meantime, we need to focus our energies on worshipping him.
QUESTION
How do you respond to the fact that God is infinitely wise?
PRAYER
Great God of wonders, I worship you. Thank you for this awe-inspiring world that you have created. Help me to worship you with the whole of my life. Amen