One of the must-read books in the Christian faith is the autobiographical writing of Augustine entitled, “Confessions.” He was a great theologian and bishop in the early church. I continue to be amazed at his life and influence.
There is a good story about Augustine walking along the beach where he saw a little boy digging a trench in the sand. He asked the boy what he was doing.
The boy answered, “I am making a trench.” Augustine asked, “Why are you making a trench?” The boy replied, “I am going to empty the sea into my trench.”
Augustine thought to himself as he walked down the beach, “So the boy thinks that he is going to empty the sea into the little trench he has made in the sand. Sometimes we are like that. We propose to encompass the infinitude of God in the small limits of our mind.”
How true. We sometimes fool ourselves into thinking that we have the Creator of the universe all figured out. Very simply, we do not. We cannot. We never will. How could we?
A famous theologian from the early church by the name of Origen wrote, “Even the purest and brightest human understanding cannot comprehend God’s nature.” (First Principles 1.1)
The prophet Isaiah talked about the great mystery of God when he said, "Who knows the mind of God? To whom can the holy God be compared? The Lord is the everlasting God. He created all the world. No one understands his thoughts." (Isaiah 40:25a, 28)
The hymn writer summed it up simply and accurately, “How great Thou art.”