Skip to main content

To Infinity

“To infinity and beyond”, to borrow a famous line…

Did you know that God gives us a little glimpse of what infinity is like?  He does and it’s found in Psalm 103:  “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”  (v. 12)

East is in one direction, and west is in the other. But east and west never meet.  No matter how far you continue traveling east, you would never come to a place where you start traveling west.  In fact, as long as you continue traveling east, you would be doing so forever and without end.  I think those are aspects of infinity!

Of course, that verse in the Psalm is not a lesson in direction nor is it likely intended to be an explanation of what infinity is.  It is, however, a wonderful reassurance that when God deals with our sins, He really deals with them. He removes them as far as the east is from the west.

Another glimpse of something we really can’t measure is also found in Psalm 103:  “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.”  (v. 11)

This is not east or west but up and down.  It is a statement of the overwhelming and mind-boggling distance from earth to the stars (the heavens).  The distance is incalculable and unimaginable.  But again, it is not necessarily a lesson in direction nor is it an explanation of that which is unimaginable but it is a lesson of God’s love.  His love stretches even further than that which to us in incalculable.

And my desire in writing this is not to draw our attention to directions nor is it to attempt to try to explain infinity.  My desire is to mirror, as best I can, what the Psalmist was trying to do, that is, to draw attention to God.  After all, what can be of greater importance than to know that God’s love stretches further than the greatest distances that we can ever imagine and that God takes care of our sins to the extent that they are infinitely removed from us.

With God, it is “to infinity and beyond!”

 

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Excel Still More!

To excel, according to some of the meanings from a few dictionaries, is to surpass others, do extremely well, outdo, do something better than anyone else. In 1 Thessalonians 4:1, we find the phrase “excel still more”.   It prompts the question:  if we are already doing something better than anyone else, why would we be encouraged to do even more? Perhaps it would be helpful to see the wording that other translations use for “excel still more” to see why we would be encouraged to do so.  Here is a sampling: • abound more and more • to keep doing so more and more • but try even harder • live that way more and more. • that you progress even more. • that you increase more and more in how you ought to walk Maybe it would also be helpful to see some other verses where the word “excel” is used: “Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which when translated means Dorcas); this woman was excelling in acts of kindness and charity which she did habitually.”...

Value Proposition

Value proposition:  it’s a marketing statement that summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service.  It should clearly and concisely communicate what customers can gain from selecting a particular brand over that of its competitors. In a value proposition, you don’t want your product to be viewed as being worth less than what your competitors offer.   But even worse, in a bit of a quirk of how letters and spaces can fall, if you take out the space between “worth” and “less”, you get “worthless”, which means something of no value.   If that word is used in conjunction with how your product is viewed by customers, it’s a word that will likely kill your brand. In the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul, in a sense, communicated some value propositions. In chapter three, he starts off with describing the value of some things that many considered as extremely valuable in that day and age.   They had to do with status and achievement in the reli...

Can't Get No Satisfaction

One of the songs that were popular in my youth was not particularly upbeat or helpful but it probably did express some of the angst of my generation.  It was not one that particularly resonated with me but as I recently read the book of Haggai, it did come to mind, well, at least some of the lyrics did.  It was the Rolling Stones song with the lyrics “I can’t get no satisfaction”.  Take a look at the chorus of that bleak song:   I can't get no satisfaction; I can't get no satisfaction; Gonna try and I try and I try and I try; I can't get no - I can't get no –   Now take a look at Haggai 1:6 – “ You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” It sure sounds like the people of Judah couldn’t get any satisfaction with the things of life that normally should have brought some type of s...