Thinking About God, Part 2
Maybe It's Not About Specifics
Approach with Humility
A prior post reminded us that thinking about God properly requires an exquisitely humble approach. One doesn’t just ring up the creator of the universe like calling on a neighbor to borrow a stick of butter. Any conception of him is inadequate. Any conception of him involves a good bit of condescension. So approach him humbly, recognizing that whatever you think of him is not enough.
Approach the Unknown
Yet it’s also likely true that anything we think of him is too much. That is, if any conception of him is inadequate, perhaps we should not be conceiving of him with any degree of specifics because to do so unwisely diminishes him. We might do better to think of him as existing within the unknown. Isn’t that the way in which we most sense his numinosity, that aspect of awe? Perhaps to think of the unknown is exactly that oxymoron or impossibility that best captures or characterizes our miraculous, pre-existent, supernatural God. He is beyond capture or characterization. So maybe we should be thinking of him only in that unknowable sense, like contemplating one’s future out of the vast array of possibilities. We don’t really know, and so we approach the unknown with a balance of faith and humility.
Scriptural Clues
In saying so, I must immediately admit that Psalm 23 bids me to imagine God as a shepherd leading me beside still waters. I often think of him in that vein. I also often think of God in the setting or context of the gospel accounts of Jesus, whether for instance in his hometown synagogue, Gethsemane’s garden, the Temple courtyard, or the Galilee shore. These specifics comfort and reassure me of his nearness, corporality, and familiarity. Yet I also think of God in the context of his depictions in Daniel, the transfiguration, and Revelation, with blazing eyes, legs of molten metal, or a sword emerging from his mouth. I think of the slain lamb approaching the throne and of the Almighty on the throne, surrounded by the four fearsome creatures and thousands of worshiping angels.
Letting Loose of the Conception
But aren’t these images just clues to the unknown? Don’t the scripture’s depictions just stand for whom and what we cannot directly know? They are simply stimuli to our imagination, helps along the mysterious way. Consider thinking of God within the unknown. Don’t try to pin him down. Let him be who he is, beyond imagination. Approach him nonetheless, in faith and with humility.
