Knowing the Unknowable

Trying to explain God is like trying to explain a kiss.

You can check the dictionary definition: “A caress with the lips; a gentle touch or contact.” But does that really capture the essence of what a kiss is?  Does that describe what a mother does when she tenderly places her lips on the forehead of her newborn?  Is that what the young lover does when he says good-night to his girl, with a first kiss?  Does it grasp the passion and intimacy of long term lovers?

Just as words cannot completely capture all that is involved in describing a “kiss”, we also cannot fully comprehend, explain, or define “God”. That’s where we enter the realm of faith.

In Isaiah 55 God says, “My thoughts and my ways are not like yours.  Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours.”  Which makes sense because how could the finite fully comprehend the infinite?

Yet we can know God intimately if not completely through experiencing His revelation of Himself in His Word, the bible and in the person of Jesus. Hence Paul prays in the letter to the church in Ephesus “May we have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.

Peter Morphew

College Chaplain