In the Mind of God

Solomon wrote that “[God] has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT



It’s been a difficult thing for us to find out what is in the mind of God…but we’re all curious. For centuries we have dug into the ground, looked into the stars, analyzed and criticized each other’s beliefs, gone to war for our convictions, and pursued the who, what, and why we are here, hoping to find out how it all began.


As we’ve been learning in our ten-week series, The BIG Picture, the scope of eternity is forever past; it includes the present, and moves into the forever future. That’s a lot for our finite minds to try and wrap around.


The good thing to remember is that God chose to pursue us. But, what does that look like? Would I recognize Him? Would I know who just crossed my path today? Would I understand what He wants for me? Sadly, most of us wouldn’t, actually don’t, recognize, or see, or know, or understand. But that doesn’t mean He isn’t on the job!


I have to face it; I get turned around or even lost while driving a lot. Just because I don’t know or see or recognize where I am doesn’t mean that I can’t get there from here; I just need my bearings, some understanding of where I am and then I can calculate the next move. I need a landmark, a familiar sight, or an explanation of the map.


Enter the Word of God. The Bible. What if we were to look at it not as a road map or a behavioral guidebook, but as a diary? What if God has been trying all along to unfold to us who He is and what He is like more than having been trying to tell us what He wants from us? Abraham, the father of faith, didn’t have a Bible to go by – he had a relationship with God where God saw his faith and counted his heart righteous for it.


Peter said, “God chose Him as your ransom long before the world began, but He has now revealed Him to you in these last days.” - 1 Peter 1:20 NLT


You see, God has been thinking and planning and working on this stuff for a long time. I don’t believe He would claim to create us in His image, love us so much that He would send His only Son to die a death payment for our sins, and offer abundant and eternal life to all who accept Him and not let us in on who He is and what He is thinking!


As the bible begins with the creation story, it has been debated and scrutinized and argued over for centuries about how creation was done. I don’t think that God had it written like it is for the purpose of debating things we can never know (like Solomon said) but that it is written like it is to show us who He is and what He is thinking.


The story goes that God said this and it was so and it was good. Until He said, “Let Us make man in our own image…” It was there where God reveals a bit of Himself to us. Things around us like nature and all created things, the beauty of sunrises and sunsets, are all from God speaking them into existence. But we, on the other hand, are something different. God’s spoken word at this point was not to speak into existence, but to declare what He was about to do. He rolls up His sleeves, gets His hands in the dirt, and is personally involved in creating us. We are not just a thought spoken into existence from God; we are His handiwork, formed from the dust of the ground like a potter would create a clay pot. We have His fingerprints in our DNA.


I believe He is trying to show us how all along it has been in His mind to be personally involved with His people. Do you recognize Him?