How can we as finite creatures of limited understanding know a God so infinitely awesome? At best, we only see the outer fringe of His works.
Yuri Gagarin, a faithful Christian from Russia, became the first cosmonaut. His mission on April 12, 1961 only lasted 108 minutes. The political leadership at the time purported him to have said, “I went up to space, but I didn’t encounter God.” Although these famous words became inaccurately associated with his name, what he really said portrayed a much different narrative: “An astronaut cannot be suspended in space and not have God in his mind and his heart.” A respected colleague of Gagarin commented about Yuri, “He always confessed God whenever he was provoked, no matter where he was.” Whether circling the spectacular globe we call earth or with his feet firmly planted on the ground, Yuri expected to see and experience God.
We see whatever we expect to see. If our minds and hearts are turned toward God, we cannot but see Him everywhere and in everything — even if only the outer fringe of His works.
Thousands of years ago, Job pondered God’s creation from a more lowly position. He knew that Someone bigger, wiser, and greater created everything that surrounds us. When Job stood in awe of the vast expanse of sky, the rhythms of the seasons, or the thunderous roar of unstoppable storms, he saw God.
“And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”
Job 26:14
Every Christian yearns to know Him — the One who can never be fully known, the One with whom we glimpse but a thread of His majesty and might.
Majesty
Unfortunately, for the most part, we have lost our sense of wonder. Fifty years ago, A.W. Tozer lamented the depth of our loss.
“The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking … not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge … with our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence.”
A. W. Tozer
However, we are not at a complete loss or without hope. God’s desire for us to know and see Him far exceeds any innate desire we might have to know Him..
It is astonishing how many times in the Old Testament, God says, “Then they will know Me.” Again and again, God provoked for His followers to know Him — to experience the fullness of His being, the wonder of His majesty, the power of His love.
“But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.”
1 Corinthians 2:14
Holy Spirit awakens our spirit to the knowledge of God. And so we must live in between catching only a glimpse of the outer fringe of His works and a vibrant, experiential knowledge of His power and grace upon our lives. A friend, pondering the nature of God, recently wrote,”
“Power and Grace Together
Omnipotence without grace would be terrifying.
A God strong enough to crush but unwilling to save.
Grace without power would be empty.
A God willing to forgive but unable to redeem.”
– Doug S
Settle
So, even as we, like Moses, cry out to know God more, we must temporarily settle for seeing Him through the outer fringe of His works.
“ Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” “And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
Exodus 33:18-20
God responds to our cry to know Him. In response, He reveals His goodness toward us. In the Bible, He declares His attributes and the qualities of His being. The Holy Spirit continuously unveils His character — revealing Him, piece by piece, like segments of a puzzle with parameters beyond our view. He is so vast that only eternal seeking will uncover the unending revelations of His goodness, glory, and majesty.
Though daily we seek His face, longing to know and perceive the grandness of who He is, yet we understand that we will only glimpse a thread of the vastness of Eternal God. In settling with our human limitations, we cannot nor will not settle. The ever stirring to know and be known drives us to seek Him. Is Tozer right again when he says,
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us?”
Perhaps. If it is true, how much more important that we hold accurate thoughts and perceptions of Him. In this, the Bible becomes our greatest resource. The indwelling Spirit never contradicts what God has written about Himself in the Word. The two perfectly align.
The Question
Jesus asked His disciples who other people thought He was. Then He asked them, and us, a pertinent question.
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Matthew 16:15
“God, who are You?” The question for which we all must find the answer.
Once I thought of God as a cruel monarch who ruled with an iron fist from a place far away — distant and disconnected from humanity — especially from me. Then I encountered Him in a personal way that revealed He was intimately near and lovingly concerned about even the smallest detail of my little life. The more I came to know Him, the more overwhelmed I became of His perfection — the perfection of His love and mercy, His grace and goodness, His justice and righteousness, His wisdom and faithfulness … on and on it goes, never reaching sufficient understanding through my finite mind.
Our answer to this critical question becomes more complete the longer we walk with Him and grow in faith. As we read His Word, we discover wonderful things for which we once possessed no previous comprehension. Is that not the journey of all love? A ever-unfolding awareness of the depth and beauty of the One we love.
He waits, ready to respond. Delighted to reveal Himself to us. Again, I refer to Tozer. ” The knowledge of the holy God is a free gift to men who are open to receive it.” A free gift. One we simplyreceive.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Matthew 5:8
We don’t need to launch into outer space, like Yuri Gagarin, to see or know God. We don’t need to wait until we reach heaven’s eternal gates and see Him face to face. From wherever we are, if we look, we will see Him in the outer fringe of His works and everywhere. Then, like Job, we may with hushed voice utter,
“My ears have heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”
Job 42:5
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