Greater than we can imagine

I enjoy listening to books by best-selling author Nicholas Sparks. His 23 published novels and two nonfiction works have all made the New York Times bestseller list. Over 115 million copies have been sold.

My favorite Sparks book was co-written with his brother, Micah, and appropriately titled, “Three Weeks with My Brother.” It chronicled numerous stories from their childhood and adult lives, as well as their round-the-world trip. Surprisingly, what fascinated me most was not the story of their 21-day world trip, but what they shared about growing up, struggling with challenges, and their love for one another.

I found one childhood story particularly fascinating. As young children, their father told them he could make the rain stop as they traveled in the family car. The two brothers recall closing their eyes and hearing their dad count to three with them. Sure enough, the heavy rain stopped for a moment. When the downpour began again, he would explain that it took a lot of power to hold back the rain, and that he could only do it for a short time.

Many years later, Nicholas, Micah, and their little sister, Dana, discovered how their father had performed his magic. They realized every time their dad stopped the rain, their vehicle was going under an overpass. That revelation made me laugh out loud but also prompted me to reflect on something the authors had not contemplated.

While not a perfect analogy for how God operates, it can help us understand that he works from a different point of reference than people. As adults, we can think in abstract ways that our children cannot comprehend. Similarly, God’s perspective is much larger than ours.

The distance between God and us is greater than the difference between adults and children. Here is how God describes this: “‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the Lord. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9, NLT)

Astronomers explain the vastness of the heavens by measuring the unfathomable distances in space using the unit of light years, which is the distance light travels in a year, approximately 5.88 trillion miles. Considering this analogy, it is no surprise that we often fail to comprehend what God is doing. Just as young children trust parents who know a lot more than they do, we too can trust the God who knows infinitely more than we can imagine. His knowledge, wisdom, and perspective are profoundly greater than our own.