by Pastor Douglas Brauner
… is the God of Light
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.
Alleys are a photographer’s wheat field at harvest. There is an abundance of subjects to fill a roll of film. You can stroll an alleyway one day, then come back in two weeks and find it has changed like the landscape after a hurricane. There are endless possibilities in an alley.
Behind these two grated alley doors lies a great possibility of stuff waiting to be explored. The problem is that these doors are locked and prevent a person from exploring. The shadows hide and distort to the point a person cannot say with accuracy what lies in the depths.
“How great is God—beyond our understanding!
The number of his years is past finding out.”
Job 36:26 New International Version
We often dismiss what Job’s friends said because they had the wrong perspective how of God acts. They believed that Job suffered because he had disobeyed God. He needed to confess his sin, and everything would be okay. However, what Elihu says is true. There is a hiddenness to God that we cannot know. He is beyond our understanding.
Even though God is beyond our understanding, he is not beyond our lives. It is God who chose in mercy to open the gate and empty heaven of his Son. To know Jesus is to know God because he is God veiled in human frailty. There will always be aspects of God that are beyond our comprehension, this must be so, or he is not God. But this God who is hidden in the shadows is knowable in Jesus.
God’s love for sinners is known in Jesus.
The hope for sinners is known in Jesus.
The joy for sinners is known in Jesus.
When speaking to a Samaritan woman, Jesus informed her that “God is Spirit.” (John 4:24) The nature of God is beyond human understanding. Yet, this God who is Spirit is the God who dwells with us in life’s struggles. The unknowable God makes himself known to you and me in Jesus.
Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
