God is Other: The Experience of Wonder - Part 2

By Ben Petersen, 07 Apr 2022

God is Other: The Experience of Wonder - Part 2[1]

This is the second of two posts reflecting on a chapter from Adam Ramsey’s book Truth on Fire.[2] In Part 1 we saw how utterly different - other - God is to us creatures. In this post we’re going to see his otherness on display in human form from two episodes from the Lord Jesus’ life, in Mark’s gospel. We’ll then think, with Ramsey, about maturity, and how it might not look like we’d expect!

Jesus, the I Am on display

All through the gospels we see a man walking the earth who is so much more than a man. He is the I AM on display, says Ramsey.[3] In Mark 4:37-41 Jesus was sleeping soundly through a furious squall, when he, awakened by terrified disciples, got up, and rebuked the wind! He said - not shouted - to the waves “Quiet! Be still!” What being has that kind of a relationship to the sea? At high tide, I could stand on the Stone Jetty and shout at the sea to go away, and after a few hours it would. But that’s nothing to do with my words, it’s just the tide! But Jesus’ words turn a great storm into a great calm. Who could have that kind of power over nature? Surely only the creator.

The angry waves and tantrumming winds recognised the ancient voice that called them into existence at the very beginning, and sat obediently at their master’s feet. Christ spoke. Creation listened. And the disciples trembled. (29)

Just stop: see just how normal Jesus is, right up to the point where he - without fuss - tells a storm to chill out. What must it have been like in the boat? The disciples’ fear grows to terror even though the thing they feared has gone. This man is other. A couple of chapters later Mark shows us Jesus walking on the same body of water. The disciples think he’s a ghost. They’re terrified and they cry out. But he says “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”[4] Literally, ‘It is I’ = ‘I AM.’[5] In two separate events, Mark shows Jesus with authority over the water that only the creator could have. He is the I am. He is the uncreated one - but in human flesh! Now that is reason for awe and wonder.

Maturing towards childlikeness

We might have a mental picture of Christian maturity that doesn’t look very fun or joyful, but that’s entirely wrong! What does growing in maturity look like? Ramsey suggests it looks like growing more childlike.

I’m sure there are many reasons Jesus said, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). But surely one of them had to do with a child’s capacity for experiencing amazement.” (30)

It’s totally true, isn’t it? Kids find stuff way more interesting than adults do. Granted, they’ve got fewer concerns. They’re probably not thinking about how quickly they’ve got to hang the washing up when they get home so they can cook tea and get out for C3. They’ve got headspace, so they notice things that amaze them.

And it’s that ability to slow down and enjoy the things God has put in front of them that means their capacity for wonder is greater. They have space to be amazed at the things around them. And as we grow up, as the cares of this world get heavier, we find it much harder to enjoy the things around us. We become numb. And the same goes for our amazement at who God is. We become numb to glory. Whether in creation, or in God. Numb to how utterly different he is to us

So how do we turn that around? Ramsey suggests,

My heart remembers how to adore when I slow down long enough in the rush of 21st-century life to earnestly grace upon the creative genius of God. (32)

Life is chaotic, we know this. But the beauty of living in a world where everything is God’s creation is that everything carries his fingerprint. So, whatever you’re doing, however chaotic it is, can you slow your mind down just long enough to glimpse his glory and wonder? If it’s washing dishes - he’s given us water that keeps us alive and lets us clean ourselves and our stuff; he’s given us food for the day. If you’re walking with the sun on your back on a cold day - you get a tiny taste of the warmth of his tender love for you his child.

And the same goes for his word. How often do we pick up the bible and skim a paragraph out of guilt?  How much more of God’s glory would we see for 30 seconds pondering for each thing we read? Ramsey again,

And when I stare into God’s word, I am reminded that he who created all the beauty I just described is the same one who spans the universe with his hand (Isaiah 40:12); who calls forth all of the trillions of galaxies, that each contain hundreds of billions of stars, which he knows all by name. (32)

I had an odd experience a few weeks ago. I was scrolling through Facebook, and I came across a post. It was a series of pictures showing how planet earth fits into our galaxy and the galaxies beyond. And it rocked me. I can get my head around the possibility that God might have created our solar system for our enjoyment and his glory; maybe even the galaxy. But there was a slide that showed a bit of black sky between some stars. And when the Hubble telescope looked into it, it saw a few hundred other galaxies just in that direction.

Why would God create so much, so many millions of billions of stars, if his main focus is making his glory known on earth? I wrestled this through for a day or two, maybe a week, before it hit me. My God is too small. I’ve put my God into a roughly galaxy-sized box. But the Bible demands I call him bigger than that. Even the furthest flung galaxy needs a creator. But God has life from himself. He’s so full of life that creating a hundred billion galaxies isn’t effort for him! If that’s not awe-inspiring otherness, I don’t know what is. And that’s the God we meet in the pages of his word. That’s the God who was in the boat with those disciples on the sea of galilee, who himself meets us by the Holy Spirit as we trust him.

Conclusion

Our God is other. He has such life in himself that he can call billions of galaxies out of nothing for his creatures to enjoy. He has such life in himself that through the life and death of his Son, he can give life to people who are dead in their sin. This Easter, let’s commit to slowing down so that we can enjoy the wonder of what he’s revealed in his creation, and in his Son.

[1] This blog post is an edited version of the Teaching Time from Sunday 6^th February.

[2] Adam Ramsey, Truth on Fire: Gazing at God until Your Heart Sings (Epsom: The Good Book Company, 2021). Quotes in the body of text followed by a page number in brackets are from this book.

[3] Ramsey, Truth on Fire, 28.

[4] Mark 6:50.

[5] The name with which God revealed himself to Moses in Exodus 3. See Part 1.