To the Father
12:12a
To the Father,
The place you dwell, no man can reach. It is neither close nor far. It is not high and it is not low. It is not behind or in front. There are no dimensions to it, or at least to what we know to be the correct dimensions. Where you dwell, no man can bring himself to imagine. It cannot be conjured by any hands other than your own. You dwell there so heavenly, so noble, so mysteriously. Man and angel call this sort of thing “Holy,” but even that O Father, even that is a miniscule definition of your complete separation.
And I suppose that if the place you dwell was a higher heaven, men might become furious. They might say that your place is somehow zoned off especially for those who could reach it (by some merit or another), or less, that they would say this highest heaven was unreachable to mortal man yet made to keep even the noblest out.
But this is not where you dwell. It is unlike any other. We cannot describe it. We can only say that it is separate. And I suppose we could say that that is enough. Though could it be? Could it be enough to say that it is enough to accept that it is unfathomable? It cannot be, for you have invited us to where you are (Hebrews 4:16, Leviticus 11:44). What a mystery in our eyes and in our hearts O King! Father! Are we torn then? Are we torn between two extremes; one being that your Holiness is unreachable, and two being that you have invited us to it? Give us understanding.
This is why we strive then, to meet you, yet the attempts sometimes seem futile, for you have bridged the gap between the broken and perfect; with your own hands! Still, you look on us. Everyday you are watching us go about in whatever way seems good to us. What a monotonous people we are, doing the same things, over and over again. We find ourselves repeating history, making the same mistakes our fathers made. It is humanly and simple minded: we eat, sleep, move, work, live, die, kill, judge, entertain, congregate, and discuss. Still, you look on us. We make excuses for an unfulfilled life, a life that can only be fulfilled by your only begotten Son anyway. We torcher our minds with idleness, laziness, busyness, confusion, ill-ponderings, destructive debating, gossiping, unwise and unwholesome talk, and the worst of all, sin. Still, you look on us.
You are not afraid, shaken, controlled, changed, manipulated, shafted, coerced, or redirected by some man-made philosophy, theology, or practice. You are immutable, unwavering, and steadfast. You are the ultimate glory. So then, one should not seek the place of the Person as his end; rather, it is the Person that desires all to draw near. And I suppose that you know this more than your own creations. I also suppose that you do everything right and Holy within your power to operate within the story of each individual.
What I am meaning to say is this. There is now no need to complain. There is no need to make false accusations, to claim an unworthy lie, even so much as a fib. There is no need to say things like, “My God is gone (though He may feel further than the farthest of imagined places), my God does not love me, my God has not saved me, my God has abandoned me, my God has forgotten about me, my God has completely turned away from me forever, my God has gone missing, my God is sleeping, my God is ignoring, my God is not Father, my God has failed me, my God has not provided, my God will not fulfill me, my God will not bring His promises,” and so on. We are with no excuse, yet by these excuses we claim that our outside circumstances dictate our inner hearts. What is the Son for anyway?! Where is your heart child?! A thing from the outside is not the steering of your soul! Nothing makes us feel or act anyway. What is on the inside must come out. We choose to do what we will based off of what is inside of us and I would surely hope that the Father of lights is constantly dwelling within us. And I surely hope that His glorious Son, who drank the cup of wrath on the cross at Calvary, is the greatest reality in our lives.
Despite the constant calamity we might bring upon ourselves, one thing remains: you are most Holy and separate Father. If you were not unlike us, we would have no hope. For one, you would be the same. We would stand before you and say, “Well what is special about this man? Nothing. We know everything about him.” We might learn you, completely, and that is a scary thing.
Conversely, if you were not like us, we would also have no hope. For another, you would be different. We would come to you and say, “You cannot relate to us in any way, for your separation is beyond your ability to remedy a disunited relationship.” However, we delight that this is not the case! You are both relatable and not. That is why when I speak of “separation,” I am making a feeble attempt to display a part of your nature, not detach your gracious dealings with man.
Still, I suppose the most wonderful glory is that we are without excuse. We have already been taken care of. It is interesting how often we struggle with temporary happiness, and still more interesting that we make our own elaborate plans. But it is also written, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand” (Proverbs 19:21). It is THIS purpose we want to know. It is your purpose that we wish for. By you, we will be most fulfilled.
