"Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend."
Mosiah 4:9
Although on an intellectual level we can understand the idea that God knows more than we do, I think that the full extent of the idea of "man doth not comprehend what the Lord can comprehend" might be beyond our grasp, by definition. :) Let's think about it a little bit just for fun though.
1 Samuel 16:7 says "the Lord seeth not as man seeth," and to me that idea of perspective is what all of this is about. We know that God is the same sort of being that we are on some level, because we are his children with the capacity to become like him. Not anytime in this life of course, but still, that's part of God's plan for us. So we at least know that we're not carrots gazing at gazelles and wishing we could be like them. That said, still... compared to God, we're at most kindergartners hoping to grow up to be nuclear physicists, and honestly, that's way, way closer than we really are, but good enough for a thought experiment.
Imagine that our Dad, then, is a nuclear physicist and he comes to teach our kindergarten class. He's trying to explain basic particle physics to us so that we can all learn something, and we're listening, mostly, while we're also coloring and playing with blocks. I think that distance between our knowledge and our Dad's we understand for the most part, and we can sort of measure it in years of schooling and experience. We also mostly get the idea that he is the father of all of us in the classroom and that he cares about us deeply. However, I think the part that we don't always consider is that God in this imaginary scenario not only built the school, manufactured the blocks, crayons, desks, and shoes we are wearing, and wrote all of the textbooks, but he also has a cool thought-activated app through which he is teaching each of us individually at the same time he is teaching us as a class.
Even in our thought experiment trying to keep things comprehensible, what God can do seems impossible for any normal person... which I guess is the point. God isn't a normal person at all, and we need to understand that so that we can respect what he is and what he can do and see, and learn to take his advice. Today, let's not look at God as a fallible human, but also let's try not to look at him as a carrot or an alien either. :) Let's remember that he loves us, and that he is trying to help us. Let's pray and take advantage of that opportunity to learn and improve, and become more like him.
Mosiah 4:9
Although on an intellectual level we can understand the idea that God knows more than we do, I think that the full extent of the idea of "man doth not comprehend what the Lord can comprehend" might be beyond our grasp, by definition. :) Let's think about it a little bit just for fun though.
1 Samuel 16:7 says "the Lord seeth not as man seeth," and to me that idea of perspective is what all of this is about. We know that God is the same sort of being that we are on some level, because we are his children with the capacity to become like him. Not anytime in this life of course, but still, that's part of God's plan for us. So we at least know that we're not carrots gazing at gazelles and wishing we could be like them. That said, still... compared to God, we're at most kindergartners hoping to grow up to be nuclear physicists, and honestly, that's way, way closer than we really are, but good enough for a thought experiment.
Imagine that our Dad, then, is a nuclear physicist and he comes to teach our kindergarten class. He's trying to explain basic particle physics to us so that we can all learn something, and we're listening, mostly, while we're also coloring and playing with blocks. I think that distance between our knowledge and our Dad's we understand for the most part, and we can sort of measure it in years of schooling and experience. We also mostly get the idea that he is the father of all of us in the classroom and that he cares about us deeply. However, I think the part that we don't always consider is that God in this imaginary scenario not only built the school, manufactured the blocks, crayons, desks, and shoes we are wearing, and wrote all of the textbooks, but he also has a cool thought-activated app through which he is teaching each of us individually at the same time he is teaching us as a class.
Even in our thought experiment trying to keep things comprehensible, what God can do seems impossible for any normal person... which I guess is the point. God isn't a normal person at all, and we need to understand that so that we can respect what he is and what he can do and see, and learn to take his advice. Today, let's not look at God as a fallible human, but also let's try not to look at him as a carrot or an alien either. :) Let's remember that he loves us, and that he is trying to help us. Let's pray and take advantage of that opportunity to learn and improve, and become more like him.
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