Increasingly, it seems to me that the things of God are simply not the things of man. “What is man that thou are mindful of him?” the Psalmist David asks in the Bible. Based on this, the things of man don’t even include man, though, thankfully, if we are to trust the Psalmist, at least they are important to God. At any rate, a disparity seems apparent between God and man, a divergence of interest, and it is to this curiosity I’d like to turn.
The Scriptures tell us that His ways aren’t our ways – but what exactly are our ways? A hint can be gleaned from the beauty pageants of yesteryear. Among the contestants, curing world hunger was always a priority, as well as international peace and bringing education to the third world. Colonizing Mars might make a contemporary list, along with increasing GDP, curing insulin resistance syndrome, updating the curtains in the living room, learning to bake, buying a boat, or, for the literary among us, writing the perfect novel.
Nor do these preoccupations exist contrary to the desires of Deity, at least not in the logical sense, though even an unsophisticated thinker would likely assume that they fall short as deistic properties as such.
Still, what are the things of God, and how are we to know when we see them?
This question struck me like a lightning bolt during the Easter service last Sunday. During the recitation of the Creed, we were told of Our Lord’s descent into Hades only to rise again on the third day.
“Great galloping gorillas,” I thought. “Why is Jehovah so keen on the Resurrection?!?!?”
Because, being all powerful, He might’ve chosen any preoccupation, it seemed to me, such as the magnificence of the Heavens or the mysterious wonders of the Deep. He might well have focused on his unique ability to take down kings and raise them up, as he said He could do in the Scriptures, rather than his ability to do the same as the King of Kings for the salvation of mankind. Thus, I found myself asking with David, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?”
But this was followed by another thought. What if, even with the Resurrection, it isn’t about man at all, at least not in the way we’ve always thought? What if the rites and celebrations of Easter point to an even deeper reality, one about the Deity himself?
Reciting the words of the Creed, a picture began forming in my head of bursting flowers and springing animals – indeed, of a Creator so obsessed with life and His ability to create it that the process of creation exists everywhere in miniature like Russian dolls whose contents are never exhausted. I always thought the Resurrection was the ultimate defining symbol for this, but now I see that, even in the Resurrection, there is meaning that points to the Almighty Himself.
In that moment, the Resurrection story led me back to the darkness of primordial Chaos, to a cold and lonely place in which, not only was the Universe uncreated, but, a proposition more terrifying still – neither were you and me. Then, with a power not unlike that employed to raise his begotten son from Hades, so too were you and I called forth like dead men – resurrected, in a sense, spoken into being from nothing, by a God who loves to create and wants us to know about it.
The gap between God and man is a wide one, and undoubtedly could not have been bridged but for our Lord’s sacrifice and resurrection. But after the service that day, I felt I’d been given a glance at that amazing and intervening space, so much so that, when our rector asked what I thought about the service, I could not wait to tell him.
“You see, it’s like Russian dolls,” I said. “The Lord’s reality. It all exists in miniature. Every time you look closer, the reality repeats itself.” I looked back with a self-satisfied grin.
But he didn’t understand.
“I’ll write it down for you,” I told him.
Along with his father, Allen Keller runs a lumber business in Stevenson, Alabama. He has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Florida State University and an MBA from University of Virginia. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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