March 30 – Mysteries of Majesty (Ecclesiastes 11:5-6)

“As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.” (Ecclesiastes 11:5)

IN WORD:
Human nature like to boil things down into understandable parts. We like elegant theories that explain varied situations with one simple truth. We like to analyze books and movies, categorizing their parts and breaking out their themes. And we like theological truth; we like to fit everything into doctrines and creeds so that we can understand the nuts & bolts of God.
The problem is that God doesn’t fit. Whatever systematic way of thinking man can come up with, it is too small to explain God. Whatever principles we can identify in His Word, they are too narrow to define how He relates to us. We simply can’t get a handle on Him. He’s too expansive. We’re like earthbound ants trying to get a handle on the moon. We know God’s there; we can describe what we see; and we can speculate about how He will behave. But we can’t know.
That doesn’t mean that doctrine and theology aren’t important. They are — extremely so. They give us a framework to discuss the glory of our Creator, and they help us understand patterns He has used in His dealings with us. But they do not define Him, and they do not capture Him. They do not reduce Him down to a manageable formula.

IN DEED:
We can count on God’s character. We know He is holy, loving, righteous, omniscient, omnipotent, merciful, and more. And we know that these attributes of His will not change. They, along with His Word, are forever reliable. But that doesn’t mean that we have a handle on Him. No one has explained Him fully. No one has come up with his formulas, because He is not a formula God.
Is that unsettling? It is to many people. We like predictability and explanations. But a god we can explain isn’t God. Remember that when your life seems out of control, because it really isn’t out of control. It is under the control and hand of the mysterious, mighty God.

“A religion without mystery must be a religion without God.”
-Jeremy Taylor-