The How, the What, & the When

As I begin to write my first meditative entry of Before the Son, my mind is so full of what I want to say that I wonder how I am going to limit myself to 2 pages. About 2 years ago, I became captivated by the notion of having the ability to surprise God. I had never heard anyone speak of God being surprised. Contrarily, I've heard many say that things came as no surprise to God because He was omniscient, which meant He knew everything. My question came about because I began to wonder why God would make us go through life – its struggles and victories, good times and bad times – if He knew exactly where we were going to end up. This seemed especially relevant when it pertained to those who were living in the most tragic of circumstances. Wouldn’t it make sense to just skip all the pain, suffering and drama? Just take them to Heaven. That’s what I’d do, but I’m not God. Pondering that mystery was what led me to wonder whether or not we could ever surprise God. For the first time, I thought maybe He doesn’t actually know everything. Then, I began to consider a more relational problem. How boring would it be to be God and watch us go through our entire lives if He already knew the exact details of when, what and how we would live out every moment. I bore God! Think about it. Knowing the end of a movie takes a great majority of the pleasure out of watching it. The same can be said for knowing the end of a story book. So, in my heart I posed a question to Him. God, do You know everything about our future? If so, how do You ever take pleasure in us? It wasn’t long before He began to take me on a journey of answers to this question.

His first response was, “I am so indeed God that I can know everything and also choose to keep from Myself the very same things that I know.” He walked me right through my Bible and explained what He meant. Jesus, being God in human form on the earth, said to His disciples that He was unaware of the day when God would make His final move to restore humanity back to its original, perfect state. He knew exactly how and what was going to happen, but He kept the when from the part of Himself who was the Christ on earth. When God explained this to me, not only did the answer ignite my soul with awe at just how amazing He is, but He has continuously added to His answer. He uses every piece to remove the slightest possibility of me becoming blasé about the fact that He is my God.

On another day, He explained His ability to divide Himself into 3 Persons, while remaining 1 God, in order to serve a profound purpose. He is, after all, Heavenly Father, Son of God, and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit waits to receive His instructions from the Son. He reveals mysteries and truth to us, but only as it is revealed to Him. The same Holy Spirit who knows all things, can do all things and is in every place at all times because He is God, keeps the what from Himself. God makes Himself important to Himself by giving Himself a charge. He is His own Partner, Co-Operator, and Right-Hand Man. On another day, He spoke to me about God the Father; He experiences the how. God divided Himself up so we would be able to live this life with Him, because experiencing Him as One would be too great for our mortal bodies and limited intellect to take in. There must constantly be a filter through which He gives Himself to us so we can experience His great power and presence without being overtaken by His holy glory. When I think of how the mere glimpses of His majestic aura cause me to lose all reason and control of myself, I realize that coming face to face with Him would be too potent of a dose. I imagine that such an experience would inflame every atom of my being, causing them to tear me apart so that they, each one individually, could give Him the worship He is due. God the Father intentionally and effortlessly keeps everything in balance at all times so that we can experience Him, and He can experience us. He is also the One who is able to delight in us as a father delights in his children. The Holy Spirit is how this happens. He's the Mediator. He passes our communication back and forth, filtering it through the Son, to bring delight to the Father. The Father knows the what and the when. The Son knows the how and the what. The Spirit knows the when and the how. God knows it all, and for that, He is totally amazing!

That is the way God had answered me so far, but to my delight, He spoke about the how, the what, and the when this week during Bible study class. (Did I mention that I love Bible study class!) My instructor was teaching about how God made a conscious choice to demote part of Himself from Deity to finite when He became a mortal man. That Man, Jesus, confirmed that although He was going to be killed, it was only because He let it be so. As God, He laid down His life. And as God, He raised it back up again. Then, after He finished what He came to do, God bestowed upon Himself, from Father to Son, a status above any other. He made Himself so great that all heavenly and earthly beings are commanded to worship Him. Who but God has the ability to give authority to and remove power from themselves? No one else can do that! God is so pure and supreme in His power that He needs no stimulus to activate Himself. He IS stimulus. He is so all-inclusive that He inspires, motivates and accomplishes Himself.

To answer my question: God is able to find such great pleasure in us because He CHOOSES to let our free will amaze Him. He sets His own limits far out enough to restrict Himself from controlling us, and at the same time, stays close enough to protect us from ourselves. He gives Himself insight into our futures so He can give us everything we will ever need to become who He predestined us to be, but keeps from Himself the choices we will make on the journey so He can rejoice over our successes and sympathize with our disappointments. God made it possible for us to be able to impress the One who cannot be outdone. He made it possible for us to be able to offer the value of our lives to the One who needs nothing - because He is everything. He created us with the intention of allowing us to be able to surprise the One who knows the end from the beginning. I am mesmerized afresh by the fact that God can find reason to look at me and smile because of who I am or what I do. I am overwhelmed at the marvelous method He uses to be able to do this. Truly, there is no comparison to the beauty and splendor of this kind of wisdom and power.

Key Scripture Reference: Matt. 24:36, Mark 13:32, John 16:13, Phil. 2:6-11, John 10:18

Read the Welcome! to my blog.

See why I Write.