I’ve been trying to write this post for the past couple of weeks and I find myself at a loss for words every time. Nothing I come up with seems to appropriately convey the magnitude of what I’m trying to express. Perhaps I still don’t have a firm grasp of the concept I’m trying to present. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to put it on paper (online) and I hope it helps to remind us of the awesome God we serve.

Is it perplexing to you that the God of the universe, the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God, who made the heavens and the earth and all living things, knows you and me by name, knows the number of hairs on our head and is familiar with all of our ways? Do you find yourself in awe of the One who was and is and is to come? Does this realization ever make you stop and think? That is what we are urged to do in the first chapter of Crazy Love by Francis Chan, a book we’re currently using as our church’s home group bible study. I was pleasantly surprised that this theme also came up in the introduction of our BSF bible study for this year, which is on the book of Revelation.

The idea of a majestic and intimate God presents a dichotomy that my mind can’t seem to fully grasp. As I read Scripture, I realize that it’s not a dichotomy but the reality of who our God is, whose indescribable nature makes me think of David’s words in Psalm 139:6, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” Consider these parallels between His grandness and His closeness to us:

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,… (Psalm 8:3)

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)

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The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9, NLT)

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. (Psalm 139:1)

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The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. (Psalm 19:1-2)

Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. (Psalm 139:4)

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He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:17)

You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. (Psalm 139:5)

God spoke everything into existence and could rule from afar if He so chose to, but instead He desires to be among His people. There is a reason He is called “Immanuel” or “God is with us.” We were reminded of this truth during our BSF bible study. In Revelation 2:1 it says, “These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.” God is in control and is sovereign over us but He also walks among us.

This is a recurring theme in the Bible. As Moses led the Israelites to the promised land, God instructed them to build a tabernacle with the ark of the covenant so that He may dwell among His people. It says in Exodus 25:8, “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.” God then comes to dwell among us in the flesh thru His Son, Jesus Christ, as it is described in John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” And now we have the gift of God’s presence in the form of the Holy Spirit as Jesus had promised in John 14:26, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

The truth is mind-boggling. The God who says “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool,” (Isaiah 66:1) chooses to have close fellowship with His creation. God made the ultimate sacrifice just so that we would be reconciled with Him and we have done nothing to deserve it. As I stop and think about this truth, I’m left with only one question in my mind and heart, “what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:4)

Have a blessed weekend!

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