“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,”
Isaiah 55:8,9
In relation to His Creation, God is transcendent, simply understood as “outside the boundary of.” As the above verses show, transcendent isn’t just bigger. When you go to an art museum and stand appreciatively before a painting you are especially drawn to, you don’t believe it to be a collaboration among an artist, a canvas, some brushes and a wide variety of paints. The latter were the tools that the artist chose as a means by which his genius and his talent would become visible to the world.
Because God is the maker, He is sovereign, the ultimate authority over what He has made. This is hard news for two types of people: those who have been hurt or abused by authority figures, and those who really don’t care for any situation in which they aren’t in charge. As the Scripture story unfolds, we will find out that God is so much more than boss.
Apparently, however, the first thing we are supposed to understand about Him is this: “… the Lord he is God; it is he that made us and not we ourselves.” We are his people and the sheep of this pasture” (Psalm 100:3 KJV).
When we only operate in our own limited view of things, we can’t help but understand time to be the arena in which we get what we want, when we want it and in a way that brings us the most pleasure and the least pain and for as long as possible. Scripture teaches us two things about this approach: God’s viewpoint, as played out in His time and His timing, is both larger than ours and ultimately better than ours. Secondly, all of humanity, regardless of age, is afflicted with a case of spiritual cataracts (“we see but a poor reflection” I Cor. 13:12) compounded by worldly short-sightedness (“Why you don’t even know what will happen tomorrow” James 4:14).
Someone has said that God’s plan is what we would want for ourselves if we could see things from His point of view.
Nancy Shirah
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