Incomprehensible

I worked in children’s church for the first time in 3 years. The lesson was on gratitude – giving thanks for everything, even when things aren’t going our way. This year has brought a lot of disappointment, but God is still God and we still have so much to be thankful for, beginning with the salvation freely offered to us through Christ. Our temporary circumstances can never diminish the lavish goodness God bestows on us each day.

We often let the things of our world dominate our focus, pushing God to our peripheral view. Even in this season of thanks, the temptation is to focus on the things we have that we enjoy. While we absolutely should be thankful for all things in our lives, I tend to only give thanks for things and overlook gratitude to the One who provides. 

Rather than focusing on items and circumstances, I am going to focus on gratitude to God Himself.

The first aspect of God’s nature that I am grateful for is His incomprehensibility. R. C. Sproul writes, “The incomprehensibility of God does not mean that we know nothing about God. Rather, it means that our knowledge is partial and limited…There is always more to God than we apprehend.” (Essential Truths of the Christian Faith). When I look at nature, I see God’s incomprehensibility most clearly. The natural world is unique, complex, and beautiful; it requires a Creator who is able to conceive all those intricacies and weave them together harmoniously.

We cannot fully grasp all that God is or all that He does. I find great comfort in that. Yes, there are times when I just want everything to be perfectly revealed and simple to understand. But, honestly, if we could figure out everything about God, He wouldn’t be God – or, at least not one I would want to follow. I don’t want a simple God. I need God to be complex; I need Him to see what I cannot see and I need Him to have a bigger plan than I can comprehend. 

Because God is too complex for us to fully understand, there will always be aspects of existence that we cannot explain. And that’s okay. God is working in ways far greater than we can imagine.