Higher Learning

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. And my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)

Saint Augustine was a theologian and philosopher.  In his youth he was drawn to Hellenistic philosophy.  However, following his conversion to Christ, he became one of the theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation.  He wrote books, letters, and sermons.  The size of his literary output is astonishing.  Some estimate his writings to being equivalent to writing a three-hundred-page book every year for nearly forty years.  Yet great as his theological thinking was, he realized his mind was not capable of figuring out the greatness of understanding God. 

One day he came across a little boy filling a seashell with ocean water, then running back to a hole that he had dug in the sand and filling it with water.  Augustine asked him what he was doing.  “I’m trying to put the ocean in this hole,” answered the boy.  He thought to himself, that is exactly what I am trying to do.  I’m standing on the shores of time trying to get into this little finite mind of mine, things which are infinite. 

What a timeless lesson that Augustine learned, and one we need to learn.  It doesn’t matter how many seminary degrees we have.  It doesn’t matter the number of bible studies we have participated in.  It doesn’t matter how many years we have been under the preaching and teaching and studying of God’s word, when we think we have heard it all, learned it all, know it all – we’re still missing all of God. 

We need to stop trying to figure God out.  We need to stop trying to put God into our neat little boxes.  We need to stop assuming what God is doing – or not doing.  You see, we will never be able to figure him out or analyze him completely.  God challenged Job with powerful words in Job 38:4 – “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Tell me, if you have understanding.” 

The best we can do to know God is to do the things we know we can do to please him – worship Him, rejoice in His love, and spend quality time communicating with Him.  And, we need to submit to the truth that His wonders are as great as the ocean is deep.

                                                  Darlene