Sword of Peace

I’ve been realizing more and more lately that God is beyond all human understanding and description. There’s a certain “part” or “amount” of God that He has enabled us to perceive and comprehend, because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to know Him at all; but in our human finiteness, we are incapable of fully knowing or perceiving God. He is something outside the realm of what our senses and cognitive abilities can get a hold on. We use words to attempt to describe God or parts of His nature, and indeed God uses our words to describe Himself in the Bible, but ultimately all our language can accomplish is to paint a portrait of some shadow of God’s existence.

I am reminded of the passage in Exodus where the Israelites get a glimpse of God’s “back” as He passes by them. I believe it was Rob Bell that pointed out a different translation of the word for “back” more accurately means “where He just was”. We can’t see God, only His trails and shadows and images in this world.

With this understanding that our language and comprehension are limited, how can we say anything about God? The only definition of what God is is what God is. Our words ascribe nothing to Him; He is what He is. Can we even say God is good? What is good? We only know the “good” we have seen. Our minds can’t possibly understand the level of “good” that God is. For this reason, I encourage us to think of God less in definites and more in comparatives.

If anything is “good”, God is better.

If anything is “big”, God is bigger.

If anything is “strong”, God is stronger.

If anything is “lovely”, God is lovelier.

If anything is “kind”, God is kinder.

If anything is “pure”, God is purer.

If anything is “holy”, God is holier.

If anything is much, God is more.