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As humans, we like to understand things. We feel the need to put them into some type of category, to name them. This has been a good thing for our species in many circumstances but in the case of God the ability to define or even name him is an impossibility. Yet that does not mean that it is not worth the attempt to gain some understanding of what God is, only that we must understand before we begin that these are but shadows of the truth.

The first thing to understand in the definition of God is his enormity. To do this it is useful to consider the size of the universe. To do this we must make an attempt to understand numbers. Our galaxy is 100,000 light years across, and about 30,000 miles thick and we are on the outer edge of that galaxy. It has about 100 billion stars, many of which appear to be every bit as important as ours. What more, there are billions of more galaxies. And yet according to the belief in God he can not only hold all of this in his hand but he can name the start, and the planets that circle those stars and he knows your name as well.

The second thing to consider is time. Some find it useful to consider a bird who flies over a mountain every thousand years to pick up a single grain of sand. I prefer to examine the universe itself again. The universe is 13.5 to 14 billion years old according to our best guess. During this time stars have formed, created heavy elements, died out and their matter has formed new stars and planets which have lived and died again eventually forming our star and planet. Yet when compared to eternity this is no longer than a breath and God has existed through all of eternity.

The personality of God is the final thing that we attempt to define is what God wants from us. We often try to find things we can do that will make God happy. Perhaps if we can be good enough, or help enough people, or even tell enough people about him we can create a position in which he will find us worthy. As you reconsider the power of a being who could create a trillion planets in the blink of an eye, the intelligence of a being who could understand and care about everything on all those planets and the personality that must be behind that it becomes clear. Nothing we as beings who live a hundred years on a small insignificant planet can do will earn us anything in his eyes. It must be a gift.

Finally, as a Christian the belief is that this being, one who is so large as to hold the universe in his hand, chose to limit himself to a single body. He limited his mind on a single world for the sake of a few billion people in a universe so nearly infinite and as he begin to understand just how much of a sacrifice that was we can begin to define the shadows of the truth of God.

Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
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