“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.

Job 38:4 ESV

We all have a way of looking at God. People have been trying to define Him since the beginning. Humanity either places Him in a box of their own design, tries to ignore His existence altogether, or allows God to define Himself. Those are the only three options we have as His created beings. Those who choose to turn a blind eye to God are simply disregarding the amazing discoveries of science that have only served to prove God’s existence. A simple starting list include: the complexity of the human body, the vastness of the universe as well as the fact that it had to have a beginning, the pinpoint accurate calculations for how the Earth is designed to sustain life, the laws of how nature operates, DNA, the 100 percent validity of the Bible, and fulfilled prophecies that could never have occurred outside of divine intervention. People who choose to not acknowledge those things are simply choosing to not look at God. This post is not meant to address that. Instead, it is meant to look at the other two camps for defining Who God is.

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
    and caused the dawn to know its place

Job 38:12 ESV

Microscope vs. Telescope

For everyone who is searching to know Who God is, they will come to their conclusions based on what tool they use. In order to fit God into a box, we have to shrink Him down. We have to make Him smaller than ourselves. That looks like creating categories for Him, or saying phrases like, “I couldn’t believe in a God that does that.” It’s apple-picking scripture to design a God that looks good to you. It’s separating God into an Old Testament version and a New Testament version. It’s believing that Muslims, Jews, and Christians all believe in the same God. It’s saying that all paths lead to God. It’s rubbing a lamp and treating God like your personal Genie. It’s defining God based on our experiences rather than viewing your experience through Who God says He is. To make God so small means we have to be viewing Him through a microscope. To do that is to strip God of His majesty. It makes Him lesser than humanity.

“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
    that a flood of waters may cover you?
Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go
    and say to you, ‘Here we are’?

Job 38:34-35 ESV

On the other hand, there are people who view God as infinite. There is always something new to learn about God. They gaze at Him in wonder. He seems so big at times that it can be so overwhelming. Somethings about Him are unknown, while others are in plain view. He is beautiful and vast and so much larger than all we know. For these people, their lives are defined by Who God is. Their very identity stems from being created and loved by Him. To view God in this way is to view Him how He’s made Himself known. It’s to take scripture as a whole. It’s to see the story of human existence as being designed and told by an omniscient being. That’s what happens when we view God through a telescope. He’s not our size, and He’s certainly not smaller than us. Don’t try to limit a limitless God.

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.

Psalm 29:2 NIV