“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.
No matter how hard we try to perceive the awesomeness of God, he is still God, and we are not. We must forever remember that the original, and still primary, sin was seeking to become equal to God. We are to know God, and we should seek to know about God, but we can never fully know everything about him or become equal with him. Trying to become equal to God and losing our sense of reverence and awe for God are at the heart of all sin. While we should seek to put on God’s righteous character, gracious compassion, and faithful lovingkindness, in humility, we recognize that we cannot begin to approach his majesty, righteousness, wisdom, or holiness on our own. When we have done our best to describe and praise our glorious God, what Job said centuries ago is true: “And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?” (Job 26:14) However, by God’s grace, the promise remains that one day we will be like him and see him as he is (1 John 3:1-3) and will know him fully even as we are fully known (1 Corinthians 13:11-12). We wait in eager expectation of that day!