Immeasurable vastness of being
It seems that one of man’s great obsessions is to quantify the realm around him. How far is the nearest star? What is its mass, density, brightness? How many lumens does it produce? How fast does the star go? How many BTU’s does it produce?
We are consumed with the dimensions, and yet we fail to realize that we are smack dab in the middle of immeasurable vastness. We seek to quantify. Inventory. Measure. Gage. Compute or determine. Calibrate. Calculate. Estimate. Chocolate
(Sorry, just making sure you were still tracking with me). If we were honest we would realize that we are engaged in the futility of “measuring” immenseness. Quite frankly, it can’t be done. As far as you go you will not get to the end. We cannot calibrate the magnitude creation of God; and He Himself transcends His creation.
Psalm 19:1 communicates that, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.”
An interesting verse indeed. The heavens declare the glory of God. Normally, we get this first-line theology. God’s visible handiwork denotes His glory. His creativity. His diversity. As a soundtrack to the universal drama of being, the heavens herald the majestic glory of God. But what is the deal with the expanse? It’s a packagedeal kind of verse, isn’t it?
Again, in our physically constrained world we lean toward measuring that which we can touch, see, smell or otherwise characterize quantity; we are not so precise when it comes to the “expanse” which is right before our eyes. The “white space,” the distance between the objects is just as spectacular. I mean God created that space too, didn’t He? It is just as intentional as the obvious “quantifiable” celestial matter.
I ask the question, “Why would God do this? Why is He concerned for the expanse of things? What does He care to make a celestial body, or expanse that we in our limited humanity will never be able to measure or even identify? The answer I believe is that He Himself does not want to be measured; He simply cannot be completely comprehended with our finite minds. What kind of God would we indeed have if we could package Him up completely in an I-know-everything-aboutthe-Creator bottle?
His creation will always exceed our ability to quantify or explain. I believe He wants us to get that. He Himself is not able to be put in a little algorithmic equation of quantifiable being; He is God, and thus, way beyond our ability to comprehend.
And yet, it is this God, immutable, invisible, immeasurable that seeks to be relationally known; another of God’s great unfathomable mysteries! This God desires an intimate relationship with quantifiable me. So much so that He sent Jesus, the Light of the world that we would could be delivered from our darkness, and know the Creator. What a demonstration of the incomprehensible love He has for us!
God is profoundly awesome. You cannot put a tape around Him. You cannot place Him on a scale. You cannot calibrate Him. All you can do is acknowledge some measure of His glory and worship Him.
(Kelly Larson is the pastor at Bishop Creek Community Church, an Evangelical Free Church. The church meets Sundays at 700 Hobson St. (corner of Hobson and Keough) at 11 a.m. (760) 872-7188. Larson’s blog is at TheShepherdsPen.com.)