'God is there, and more near to us than we are to ourselves'
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 119:49-72; PM Psalm 49, [53]; Gen. 37:25-36; 1 Cor. 2:1-13; Mark 1:29-45
Today’s Reflection
But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. —1 Corinthians 2: 7-13
We humans like to think that if we can understand something, we can control it—or at least have some sense that we can predict how things may unfold, or what may happen next, of what the outcome will be. The scientific revolution was centered in our ability to apply a methodology in which we formulate a hypothesis for why something happens in a certain way, and then using our senses to make observations that we consider as evidence for why our hypothesis is proven to be true or not true. Oftentimes this may involves quantifying what we observe—how many of something, or how long something lasted, or how often something happened, and so on. Bringing our senses together with our rationality through carrying out the scientific method, we believe that we can have more understanding of why things are as they are, and by so understanding our world have some semblance of how we might have more control over some aspects of the physical world. (Apologies to any scientists reading this reflection—this reflection is written by someone fully steeped in the humanities disciplines of rhetoric, literature, and theology who has not taken a science course in well over 25 years.)
As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, however, there are many aspects of our world that remain beyond our human observation and comprehension: “But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. … ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.’” In other words, there is a level of existence that is divine, beyond what our human eyes, ears, or understanding can observe or rationally understand. This doesn’t mean, though, that we cannot access this divine wisdom, that which God has prepared for those who love him. Rather, what this means (or so it seems to me) is that in order to connect with the divine we must go through life relying not solely on our physical senses and our rational mind to guide us, but more importantly we must live into being children of God who, through the Holy Spirit at work in us, so that we can also navigate our lives and relationships on a level that transcends what can be sensed physically and understood rationally. As Paul further reflected: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.”
In the 1660s, an English priest named Thomas Traherne composed many beautiful meditations on such things. As we close today’s time of daily reflection, I leave you meditate on Paul’s words alongside Traherne’s ponderings about what is Infinite. May we find within a sense that who we are and the God we believe in is even “more near to us than we are to ourselves.”
—Becky+
Few will believe the soul to be infinite: yet Infinite is the first thing which is naturally known. Bounds and limits are discerned only in a secondary manner. Suppose a man were born deaf and blind. By the very feeling of his soul, he apprehends infinite about him, infinite space, infinite darkness. He thinks not of wall and limits till he feels them and is stopped by them. That things are finite therefore we learn by our senses. But infinity we know and feel by our souls: and feel it so naturally, as if it were the very essence and being of the soul. The truth of it is, it is individually in the soul: for God is there, and more near to us than we are to ourselves. So that we cannot feel our souls, but we must feel Him, in that first of properties, infinite space. And this we know so naturally, that it is only primo et necessario cognitum in rerum naturd: of all things the only first and most necessarily known. For we can unsuppose Heaven and Earth and annihilate the world in our imagination, but the place where they stood will remain behind, and we cannot unsuppose or annihilate that, do what we can. Which without us is the chamber of our infinite treasures, and within us the repository and recipient of them.
Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditations, “The Second Century: Meditation Number 81,” p 132. New York: Cosimo Classics, 2007.
Questions for Reflection
In what ways are you able to connect with a God who exists and loves us in infinite ways that transcend what we can physically sense or rationally understand? What strikes you as beautiful and true about a God who is with us and loves us more than we can ask or imagine? How do we believe and trust in God who surpasses our human understanding?
Daily Challenge
Find a quiet space and time to just be with God today, space and time in which you can just sit with God and bask in knowing you are loved and precious in God’s heart.