A reminder: Part 3, the last part of The Structure and Flaws of Doctrine, will be posted on this blog site tomorrow, 3/27/06. Please look for it.
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I have a very limited knowledge of God. But sometimes that little bit is still too much for me. I feel utterly unworthy. Why should God make Himself known in any manner to me?
“Who am I, Lord, and how can these things be? You are so totally outside of my mental radar. If it were not for your amazing grace, I could not perceive you at all. I am speaking here for all mankind. Again, if it were not for your grace and the love from which it springs, we would all be forever damned and have not the slightest perception of the unknowable and unsearchable God.
“Lord, how can these things be? I mean, 1) how can there be such an overflowing amount of data and knowledge within me, around me and far out from me as far as infinity reaches, and 2) why would you condescend to give us humans who believe in you, even the small peanut shell of knowledge we have? What does this say about you?
“All I really know is this: You have given me enough knowledge to make me feel very blest. I am also aware of this: The knowledge of you and your creation that you have graciously given us who follow you makes no more dent in the knowledge and data that are surrounding us and are in the great beyond than taking a grain of sand from the beach would lessen the sand remaining.
“And why did you save us, and at such a terrible cost? We are not complaining, Lord (that would make us greater fools than we were sinners, if possible); we only want to know why you did what you did and why you loved us so and why you have given us this small glimpse into the wonders of the world, the universe and the great wonder of salvation – which totally eclipses all other wonders there are. How can these things be?
“You stood in the vast eternity of absolute nothingness other than your own glorious Self, and you willed angels into being, spoke worlds into existence and lovingly sculpted the form of a man creature in your own image and after your likeness. And – this is difficult for the mind to conceive – you loved this person with a dying and undying love when you knew beforehand that he would reject you twice, once in the garden of Eden and again in the garden of Gethsemane.
“You watched over me in the womb, knowing how ill-suited I would be for your grand plan; you brought me to birth and hovered protectively over me and endured my budding fickle, selfish nature, hoping against hope and waiting so very patiently for me to yield fully to your Spirit’s attempts to mold and develop me. And then, when I was finally beginning to evolve into the vessel you were so desirous of making, I was disastrously marred in the making. Instead of throwing me away in anger, with loving care you again put me on the potter’s wheel and again began the painstaking process of making me into a vessel of honor. Here I am now, near the end of life, still being worked on by a Master Craftsman, with the solid expectation of fulfilling your course for me and at last entering into my rest.”
Who among us creatures of clay are worthy of such divine love and attention? Who can search out the mind of God or give Him counsel? It is enough that He illuminates His Word for us and loves us. We may inquire diligently into the matter, nevertheless we are content with God and with what He is doing with us and through us, and we truthfully don’t need reasons why.
Wow! What astoundingly beautiful stream of praise.
Posted by: Diane | Monday, March 27, 2006 at 05:05 PM