Bible Gateway had a blog interview this month with J D Greear which sprang out of a book Greear wrote, entitled Not God Enough: Why Your Small God Leads to Big Problems. I think I will need to get the book, since the blog interview exactly paralleled my own thoughts about the ‘bigness’ of God. As J D explained it, for a long time he had mentally had an understanding of God that was simply a little larger and smarter than he was. Then he changed his perspective.
I used to have a similar image of God. God was a little bigger than my understanding, and God was positioned to help me out when I needed it. In 2009 I nearly died in a battle with e-coli. My nearly dying story has to be a story for a different time; what’s important is that I had plenty of time to commune and meditate with God. He revealed a dream to me about His nature which I will never forget, because it transformed my awareness of God.
I dreamed I was at a beautiful resort hotel, on a beautiful day, and I was standing next to an inviting swimming pool. At that point in the day I was the only one there to enjoy the refreshment it would give. I could see the other side. I could see how deep it was. I could take a plunge and confidently handle what I was getting into.
Without a word spoken, I could sense God’s presence. As if he had switched to a different scene in a movie, I was no longer standing next to a swimming pool, but rather, I was next to a vast ocean. I could not see the bottom. I could not see the other side. It dawned on me that God was showing me a metaphor. God is like an immense ocean, which He was allowing me to play in. I was so wrong to think my God was like a beautiful resort swimming pool! He is immensely bigger. His love and power are much less measurable than what I might think. It was wrong for me to put God in a box or to limit my perceptions of Him.
Needless to say, my understanding of God grew more than 10 times in size that day.
God as an ocean is still a limiting concept, but it is what my little brain can handle. I will never understand how deep, how wide, and how dangerous he actually is — because he is so much bigger than anything I can imagine.
Selah
