Reflections by Chuck Cluff, Atherton resident since 2004

Passage: Jeremiah 9:23 “Let them boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who is just and righteous, whose love is unfailing, and that I delight in these things.”

Knowing someone is a grand experience. To know another personality, another individual interested in being alive, a friend who struggles for happiness just as we do, the different ways our friends do things and approach life add to our own experience. But when we really get to who we can know, God is at the top! When we know God we know the one who knows everything, the one that has everything. The skills and knowledge of our friends are limited by their education, experience and ability, just as ours. But God has no limits at all, because God is everything!

There is nothing God doesn’t know or can’t do. It is amazing to realize that when we come into a personal awareness of and relationship with God we have become involved with the one who knows and has it all, and who wants to share it with those he created, with us. But whoa! How do we look at what that means practically for us when we are so unable to handle much of that grandness of God?

What does a bucket say to the ocean? What does a single individual say to the Grand Canyon? What does an astronomer say to the universe while gazing through a telescope? We can’t handle a lot at one time but we can handle a little of that enormity a portion at a time. We have an eternity to go from here to there as we get to know and experience more and more of God. God is everywhere at once so we can’t experience all of God at any time; and we never will be able to. But, we can go from here to there to see and experience some of God and what God has created. A traveler goes from one place to another to see the world. No one has the idea they can be every place at one time. This is how we get to know the grandness of God; a bit at a time.

From every experience with God we know God more. We understand and appreciate God more for God is always more than we thought God would be. One thing might happen and our understanding of God’s patience grows. Another and we grasp more of the completeness of God’s forgiveness. Then something directs our attention to how God so warmly, fully and lovingly accepts us. Throughout all of our journey we will find God to be a grander being than we ever thought he could be. How stirring.