A Great Flood

The Ark—perhaps one of the best examples of the nature of a relationship between finite man and the infinite God. I’m going to have to trust someone in this, but let’s be clear, my trust in God must, by the very nature of things, be much greater than my trust of a fellow man in order for this relationship to work. My fellow man is finite, as I am. However complex the inner-workings of a man’s heart, his motives, his passions, his wounds—God’s are incomparably greater. I cannot know them all. I can never see him to the end. I am forced to either trust or flee his presence—a reality so awful, so dark, so final, it is not even possible until the end of time where the physics of this world cease. The ancients were not deceived by their wisdom to the degree that we are deceived by our knowledge. We believe that when a thing can be physically explained that we somehow know it entirely—as if it has become our own creation. But we are only observing, and even if we can see a thing in much greater detail, without knowledge of the context, it does not result in knowledge of the truth. The unbeliever hypocritically considers a spiritual truth to be an imaginary truth—not understanding that it is a regular truth, but one which cannot be grasped within the finite context of our physical human experience. It must, therefore, be accepted as a matter of faith in one who can see ultimate reality. It is hypocritical because any “truth” based in an ever changing context with no center is just that—an imaginary truth. The believer is open to a different deception altogether. It is that idea that the things which God has done are simple due to his great power. When we read that he spoke the world into existence we can easily, and wrongly, conclude that it was a kind of magic. It is cheap and disposable. His creations are plastic, like Darwin’s view of the cell—a simple magical phenomena. It is similar to the way we still view gravity. But a brief and honest survey of creation reveals more spiritual complexity, more pain, more patience, more of God, than I have the physical or emotional capacity to engage. Whenever I am faced with the true God it becomes apparent that the material I am made of is inadequate to touch him. Scripture says there was a flood that covered the earth, and that Noah, his family, and the animals were saved by it. I accept that. A scientist says that what he sees in the ground tells a different story. I do not call him a liar or believe he was sent by Satan to deceive me. A scientist can tell me what he sees, but he cannot tell me what it means. The meaning of everything is found in Jesus Christ. He is the context—“in him all things hold together.” — Ryan Hunt