Understanding the infinite

John 3:9 Nicodemus replied, "How can that be?"

Nicodemus was a man of immense scriptural knowledge. He was a Pharasee, one of the ruling persons of all of Israel. To say that he spent much of his life trying to understand all of the old law is probably an understatement.

Yet, when faced with a homeless wanderer named Jesus, he was stumped about the spiritual. God stepped into Nicodemus' life and shook it up with a simple statement: You must be born again.

We, today, use that phrase as if it were candy, passing it around as though we fully understand the implicaitons of it. Do you, really? Nicodemus thought he had a very good grasp on who God was. But a simple phrase made him stop and re-evaluate all he'd ever known about God. Did God change all of a sudden? Of course not. God is the same today, yesterday and forever. But he did reveal a bit more of his nature to us in his Son.

This, of course, was just prior to Christ's admission of himself as the Savior through the most well-known verse in all scripture: John 3:16. But prior to his statement about himself, Christ spent most of the conversation talking about God's spirit... and our lack of understanding of it.

God is so much more than we can wrap our minds around. But to say that we can't have a relationship with him unless we understand him completely is absurd. When my wife and I were dating, we had to spend alot of time talking on the phone. It was a very long distance relationship. I couldn't smell her hair, or hold her. I had to rely on her voice. But does that mean we didn't have a bone fide relationship? Of course not. I had to learn about her by asking questions, listening to her, getting to know her personality.

On the flip side, did I know all there was to know about her when I asked her to marry me? Not in the slightest. But a relationship isn't about how much we know. Instead, it is about understanding the basics to communicate, then how much we communicate.

And our relationship with God is much the same. It is humanly impossible to understand all there is to God. It is sufficient to know the basics, and then begin to grow that by having continual, open and unrestricted communication.

Let me state that again. Knowing God isn't about knowing the details about God. It's about knowing God. We, as humans, have a fatal flaw. We think that knowing someone means absorbing every possible detail about them.. THEN opening ourselves for a relationship. Call it a survival mechanism, or whatever. But we really are a very untrusting breed of creation.

We think, because we can do something, we should. And if we can't do something, there is a flaw. If we can know the future and all there is to know about God, we should. This is a noble goal, to say the least. And it would rank you very high in acadamia, if you should somehow succeed (see previous posts on this topic).

And on the flip side, if we can't possibly know all there is to know, then there is a flaw. God must not truly exist, or he must not care, or he is distant... or whatever. But the fact of the matter is simple: God is God... meaning, God is in control of the planets, of gravity, of physics, of nature, of everything. We are not. God is God. We aren't.

And faith is that communication layer by which we understand the minimal basics, and through which we open our finite conversations with infinite God. I don't know what God looks like. I didn't really know what Cheryl looked like until I met her in person. But I knew very early that she was wonderful. And when I did meet her, all of my expectations were far exceeded. She is a very beautiful woman. In the same way, I know that God has been very wonderful to me, and I will, someday, know what he looks like as well.

Do you put off knowing God because you can't grasp all there is to know? Do you know the basics, but ignore God because something has shaken your world? Could God be using that moment to challenge your lines of communication... to test yoru faith? Don't let a moment of misunderstandings destroy your life. Spend time with God until you can reconcile that gap in understanding. The rewards of honest communicaiton with God are as immeasurable as God himself.