“We learned a lot about the Moon, but what we really learned was about the Earth.  The fact that just from the distance of the moon (some 240,000 miles away); you can put your thumb up and you can hide the Earth behind your thumb. 

Everything you’ve ever known; your loved ones, your business, the problems of the Earth itself—all behind your thumb.  And how insignificant we really all are, but then how fortunate we are to have this body and to be able to enjoy loving here amongst the beauty of the Earth itself.”  — Jim Lovell, NASA commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission to the moon

Distance is an amazing thing!  You always seem to get a new perspective on things; upon life…when you view them from a distance.  Whether you are viewing the entire planet from a space orbit; or the surrounding horizon from the summit of a mountain range; from a cruise ship plowing through the open ocean at flank speed; or whether you’re watching the world from 38,000 feet in a commercial airliner traveling at 600 mph.  Distance always seems to give us a new perspective on things!  It helps us see things…we didn’t know were there.

Distance, seemingly, changes everything!

Yet, I’ve noticed this curiosity about human beings, we always seem to want to know just how far away we are from our destination!  I remember as kids traveling with my parents on a long, late 70’s station wagon road trip, we were constantly asking mom and dad, “Are we there yet?  How much further?” 

“Almost there!  “Not far now!”, came the repeated promise from the front seat.  Now as a parent myself, how interesting it is to hear my own children, placed in the same situation, naturally without any prompting ask these very same questions of us?!  I suppose it’s always been like that.  I can almost imagine the early pioneer children complaining in the same vein as they rumbled along the Santa Fe trail in a covered wagon across the rolling plains of the west heading for the gold fields of California.

“Are we there yet…”  One of those seemingly perpetual haunting questions of life.

But if we could confine our thoughts to the divine for a moment, we’d recognize that distance also plays a role in our relationship with God.  For if God is infinite, then surely the first obvious reflection we could make in comparing ourselves to him relates to the reality of distance. The Scriptures themselves bear this out when describing man’s relationship to God:

The Reality of Transcendent Distance.

The Prophet Isaiah wrote poetically, “God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and all of its people are like grasshoppers.”  What he meant for us to consider is how small we are in comparison to the transcendent God of Heaven! But how vast is the disparity? Well, we need a common point of reference in order to make sense of it.  Think for a moment how dwarfed we are by the world in which we live, and you’ll learn how small we really are in relation to God.  Even unbelieving physicists like the late Carl Sagan have marveled at this.  He wrote…

“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot…Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark…and there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.”

What a brilliant statement!  But I am still shocked that someone as brilliant as Carl Sagan; though he could look with awe at the wonders of the universe and even learn the lesson of human insignificance; though he could view the creation…but never saw the Creator!

In this same quote, Sagan writes, “In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”  Really?  That kind of willful ignorance is stunning!  Despite all of his study; after of lifetime of looking into the heavens, and studying planetary phenomena that’s the conclusion he came to?  “There’s no hint that help will come to save us from ourselves?”  I wonder if Sagan ever read the words of Isaiah 40:21:

“Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  Has it not been told you from the beginning?  Have you not understood since the earth was founded?” 

How could you study astrology your entire life, and miss the most important lesson that it teaches?  Namely, this, what truly dwarfs a human being…is not just the vastness of the universe but the transcendent God who sits enthroned above it!

Sagan’s response is not surprising.  God will always be above and beyond us and that truth then suggests a reality that is equally true, even to the Christian, this God I have come to know; and who knows and loves me…is and remains to be: A God I do not Understand!  Which is perhaps why people are fond of saying when their life takes an unexpected turn; that “The Lord works in Mysterious ways”!   To repeat that phrase is to acknowledge not only God’s providence but his transcendence.  “The Lord works in Mysterious ways”!

Perhaps you may be familiar with this saying, but wonder from where it originated?  It actually has a fascinating story behind it.  It comes from a hymn written by William Cowper in 1774, reportedly the last hymn he ever wrote.

As many do, Cowper struggled all his life with depression.  And one night in a moment of deep emotional despair, he decided to commit suicide by drowning himself. He called for a cab and told the driver to take him to the Thames River in London. However, a thick fog came down and prevented the driver from finding the river.  After driving around lost for a while, the cabby finally stopped and let Cowper out. To his surprise, he found himself on his own doorstep.  Cowper stood there amazed that God had sent the fog in part that night to keep him from killing himself.  Stunned by the events that unfolded, and reminded that even in our blackest moments, God is both transcendent and sovereign.  He sat down and wrote these timeless words,

“God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.  Deep in unfathomable mines, of never failing skill; He treasures up His bright designs and works His sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; The clouds ye so much dread; Are big with mercy and shall break, in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense; but trust Him for His grace; Behind a frowning providence; He hides a smiling face. God Moves in a Mysterious Way.”

Well, of course, he does, he is transcendent God!  And because of that, the Lord’s ways will always appear to be mysterious to us because he doesn’t think, act, or react the way we do; his ways transcend human thought and reality.

Perhaps today God seems far, far away; but if he does, it’s not because, as Sagan would argue, that the universe lacks any hint of his presence. No, in fact, God has taken the initiative through the cross to close the distance between us and him.  For though God is a Transcendent God, he is also an imminent, pursuing God!  Why would he do this? Why would a righteous God pursue me?  Why would he, want me?  We find the answer to that question on the dusty shelves of an Old Testament book.  The book of Hosea, and what we find there is that: God is the Great Lover of Mankind!

Even Jesus assures us that he “came to seek and to save that which was lost.”  By his very life and teaching Jesus revealed that God is like a caring shepherd who willfully and joyfully leaves behind the 99 in the safety of the sheep-pen, to set out on a long and dangerous journey to find just one… lost lamb.

Perhaps you are that lamb?