It is very hard to be a christian. It has truly been stated Christianity is not for the weak of heart. There are so many tensions you have to keep, so many things that take two hands to hold. Bc on the one hand… but on the other hand…
For example, on the one hand God exists completely outside of space.
He is beyond our thought and comprehension.
He is bigger than we can fathom.
He is outside of time and above power.
We can’t add to Him, neither can we take away from Him.
He is God.
Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out what that phrase means.
God is infinite and undefinable. On the one hand.
Yet on the other hand that doesn’t mean God is beyond pain or joy or love.
God is love.
And God loves His children with a passion and fervor we can’t even begin to comprehend. So when His children hurt or when His creation suffers, the heart of God must feel a pain beyond what we can fathom.
Do you realize that since the creation of mankind God has likely lived with a broken heart as He watches His broken world. It has been stated ‘God does not feel less than we do, He feels more.’ He takes your pain and heartache and it truly becomes His own. So when He allows His children to suffer He is very aware He will suffer too.
Now, put those two thoughts together.
This eternally amazing beyond description and understanding God (who needs nothing and no one) feels pain bc He chooses to allow this world to continue. He could put Himself out of pain at any moment by wiping us out of existence (think flood story).
Yet He doesn’t.
Bc this God is also merciful and with a desperate longing wants to be in Covenant with us.
It takes two hands to hold those thoughts. And I for one am grateful that God is big enough to be beyond understanding and merciful enough to put up with this world and His own pain.
And if we are excited to think about the age to come when the consummation of all things will occur where heaven will come to earth and God will dwell among men…. oh how even more excited God must be.
Believer, do not shy away from thoughts that are hard to put together. Acknowledge your God is bigger and better. And one day, we will see this amazingly big God face to face. Try to picture that one 🙂