Just How Big is God?

The Bible describes God as mighty, great, deserving of fear and awe, beyond our comprehension. It’s hard to detail what all those words mean. I was thinking about all that one day, trying to come up with something I could understand.

Take people. We’re really not afraid of each other. Or in awe of each other either. We’re all pretty much on the same level. Granted, there are some people who do strike us with fear and awe but it’s usually due to something they’ve done rather than due to their mere presence.

Elephants, on the other hand, we instinctively fear. They are way bigger than us. You look at their feet and you know they could easily stomp you flat. Or grab you with their trunk and throw you into next week. We fear elephants.

As for awe, that varies with people. For me, the Grand Canyon fills me with awe every time I see it. It’s vastness and bigness is so great, I can stand for hours trying to take it all in. It’s just too big, but at the same time, too detailed. I can see innumerable canyons but there are also rocks, stones, pebbles that all go to make up the Grand Canyon. To me, it all inspires awe.

For a different perspective, think of an ant in relation to a human. He can explore the tip of the sole of our shoe, unaware of just how big we are. He can’t even relate to our hugeness in comparison to his own existence. A toad, he understands. While it’s bigger than the ant, the ant knows he is in mortal danger from it and does everything he can to flee from it. But us, we’re so big he has no concept of what we can do to him, should we so choose. There is no fear and awe of us in him. We’re too big to engender any kind of understanding that would trigger fear.

That’s what God is like to us. He is so much greater and grander and mightier and more powerful than us, we have nothing to compare him to. Thus we don’t fear him. We’re not in awe of him. Most of the time, we’re not even aware of him, that at any moment he could blink us out. And not just individually, but the whole human race. We’re clueless.

Enter Jesus. God in human form. Jesus gave us a glimpse of God, of his might, his power, his grandeur, his omnipotence, his omniscience. But also of his love for us. He made God relatable for us. Now we can begin to understand the power and might and love of God the Father. Now we can relate to the Father with the proper fear and awe.

Just another thing to thank Jesus for. That he showed us the Father.