The
prayers of young children show us what they think of God. Here are two I read
recently: “Dear God, what does it mean that You are a ‘jealous’ God? I thought
You had everything.” “I didn’t think orange went with purple until I saw the
sunset You made on Tuesday. That was cool.”
These
children are right to think of God as the owner and creator of everything, the
One who can paint beautiful sunsets. But how does God describe Himself?
Moses
needed an answer to that question when he was about to lead the Israelites into
the wilderness. He wanted to be assured of God’s presence and leading, so he
asked Him to reveal Himself (Ex. 33:13,18). In response, God came down in a
cloud and said: “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering,
and abounding in goodness and truth, . . . by no means clearing the guilty”
(34:5-7). He is
good; He is just.
We too
can know this God and be assured of His presence. He has revealed Himself in
His creation and in His Word. As we ask Him to make Himself known to us, we’ll
learn that He is even more than the owner and creator of everything!
In a
world of superlatives, God is the greatest. (RBC)
