If you go to the florist and buy a rose, and someone asks you what you have there, you would likely reply “a rose”, or maybe “a red rose”.  Now if you asked your florist or a botanist, you could learn even more about what you have.  They might tell you something like “A rose is a perennial plan of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae.  There are over 100 species.  The leaves are alternate and pinnately compound, with sharply toothed oval-shaped leaflets.  They ripen in late summer through autumn and can reach 7 meters (21ft) in height.  Lastly if you take it to a genetic engineer, they could explain to you the detail of the plant at a cellular level, and beyond.

When you first looked at the rose it was beautiful, but there was definitely much more to know than what was first known.  With God, there is no end to this.  We could spend 10,000 years learning about God, as if we were climbing a mountain of knowledge, only to find when we reach the peak that on the other side of the mountain lay other mountain ranges as far as the eye can see.  Everything about God is not merely intellectual, but it will give rise to delight and worship at the beauty and glory we behold.  This is what awaits those of us who suffer for faith.  With such a treasure that awaits us, we should be all the more eager.  There is only one true statement I could make in an attempt to define God’s glory – whatever definition I come up with is blasphemously inadequate.  However great I believe God is, in my mind, God in greater, really greater than that – infinitely.

When was the last time you stood in awe of the glory of God?  Just look around.  Psalms 8:3-4 – “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”  My encouragement is this.  Sometime in the next week, go grab a coffee or something, and take 15 minutes to walk around a park.  Enjoy all that God has revealed of Himself in that small piece of creation, and understand what a very tiny, little picture that is.  The reality of God’s glory is unfathomable.  The fullness of His glory is in Christ, and by mercy, God has revealed Christ to us.  Let that be for you a wellspring of praise to God, flowing up to eternity.

Ephesians 1:5-6 – “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”

Grace and Peace,
Adam