There’s a very interesting verse, as you know, in Acts 17:28.  It says “in Him [God] we live, and move, and have our being.”  Think about that for a minute.  That verse means that God is our world—he’s our environment, he’s our habitat.  We live well in Greenville because we understand Greenville.  We know its roads and where its businesses and restaurants are located.  But think about how lost and confused a person would be who didn’t know Greenville.  That person would wander around, probably feeling very afraid or angry, because he or she couldn’t find anything—because he or she doesn’t know Greenville.  Now, in the same way, Kate, a person who doesn’t know God is going to wander around through life, lost and confused, feeling fearful or angry, depressed or despairing, because that person doesn’t understand his or her world—his environment.  If we experience any of these emotional issues, it’s a pretty good indication, most of the time, that we do not know God well enough.  2 Peter 1:2 says that “grace and peace” are “multiplied to you in the knowledge of God.”  Do we lack peace?  Do we want peace?  It is found in the knowledge of God—knowing Him. God is our environment, Kate!  We live and move and have our being in Him!  So if we want to survive and flourish in this environment, we have to know it—we have to understand it!

But God is so big and so incomprehensible—how can we possibly understand Him?  He’s invisible, He has no body like you and me.  He doesn’t even live in one certain place—He’s everywhere!  I can’t possibly get my mind wrapped around Him because He’s too big!  Have you ever made a sandwich or a cheeseburger that was so big you couldn’t get your mouth open wide enough to take a bite?  Have you ever seen one advertised or in a picture that looked so tall and huge that you knew you’d never be able to stretch wide enough to take a bite?  Well, that’s what God is like—He’s so huge, you don’t even know where to start figuring Him out or how to do it.  But God knows that and He gave us a “bite-size” sample of Himself.  And that sample had a body like you and me—we could see Him!  We could hear Him!  We could watch Him and figure Him out!  And this sample is the man Jesus Christ.

See, Kate, Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus Christ is the “exact imprint of His [God’s] nature.”  He is fully man, but He is fully God.  He got down on our level and showed Himself to us in a way we could grasp.  Colossians 1:15 says that Christ is the “image of the invisible God.”  God, who understands our limitations, gave us something we could see—Himself in a human body—so that we could better understand Him.  And this is why my favorite books in the Bible are the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  These books are the records of Jesus Christ’s life.  I can watch Him, I can follow Him, I can read what He said to the people around Him, and how He behaved towards them.  He’s a “bite-size” of God, something I can get my mind wrapped around.  So recently, Kate, I have begun reading through John to try to understand a little more about Him.  I’ve been doing this for the last month or so and I’m only on chapter 3!  The reason I’ve gone so slowly is that I’ve started learning the most astounding things about Christ.  And when I find out these things, I remind myself that this is God!  This is what God is like!  I can understand Him, and so I can understand my environment, my world.

I’ll actually start in the first chapter of John in my next letter.

I love you,
Mom