JESUS DELIGHTED in the Father. This prophetic revelation of him tells us, “I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. I was given birth, before he made the earth or its fields. I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon of the face of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.” (Pro. 8:23-31) The Father was not a mystery to Jesus.

But Father, what a mystery you are, and how the very thought of you quickens within us a sense of wonder! How is it that matter even exists except that you created it? How is it that life exists except that you created it? How is it that we exist, except that we are also part of your creation? “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?” (Job 11:7-8)

Our minds cannot grasp nothing-ness; if we imagine away all the stars in the heavens, still they cannot collapse space into non-existence; we are not capable of completing such a thought. Yet somehow you existed and exist in a manner indescribably other than that. Nor can we comprehend an infinite universe; having lived always with the boundaries imposed by light and dark, by geographical borders, by personal limitations, our imaginations balk. We stagger mentally at the idea that we can look three hundred sixty degrees, not just in a circle, but spherically, and a line drawn from center outward would never find a stopping point. Even if we can visualize going somehow past the last galaxy, star, and planet, still there is something-ness! And in some beyond-mysterious way, you are also present in, throughout, beyond, and before and after the universe you created.

Father, what a mystery you are, and how every thought of you draws us ever onward in our quest to solve/resolve the God-puzzle. We believe that you created this bright-shining quest within us: “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecc. 3:11b) When we consider eternity, we do so, as we must at first, from our admittedly infinitesimal experience and knowledge of life. All around us, people are born, and live, and die. Their time is marked these singular events, as are ours also. Our rudimentary experience tells us that time proceeds in a linear fashion, and that it has a beginning and an end. But our concept of time is shattered when we encounter you, Father. You say of yourself, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Rev. 1:8)

As we sincerely and honestly attempt to grasp the deepest meaning of this, your universe, Father, opens up to us in a breathtaking paradigm shift of existential cosmological dimensions, and matter and space become impossible for us to grasp. At first cautiously, next incredulously, and finally eagerly, we embrace the incredible thought that our own life is not finite, and that death in linear time is not what we thought we knew. We can tremulously begin to both believe and receive Jesus’ words, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

Father, there are many minds far greater than ours that throughout the history of mankind have made deep quests into the understanding of matter, space, and time. The search for such knowledge is never-ending—it’s inherent in how you have made us. (cf. Ecc. 3:11) Too often our search brings satisfaction to our minds, yet not to our souls. The subject is too vast for our finite minds to deal with comprehensively, so some other way of solving the puzzle is necessary. And you, Father, have provided that way.

It is the way of the Spirit, and it is offered and taught to us by Jesus, and it is a way that both the dullest of minds and the brightest of minds can travel. And this way takes satisfaction in the journey, deemphasizing the destination without in any way diminishing it, while still promising that the manifold rewards of the destination will exceed the satisfaction in the journey. We are satisfied, Father, to delight in you daily, and to proclaim with the ancients, “Unto the ages of ages, Amen.” (cf. Eph. 3:20) And we look forward to being with those who gather round your throne, and there to proclaim: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. ” (Rev. 4:11)

Q. What if I stepped fully into the parallel universe of the Kingdom of Heaven?