Is there anything in nature that can even begin to picture the transcendent God?  No.  Not really, of course.  But is there something that might capture a smidgeon of his wonder?

Ultimately, all of creation testifies to God’s power, wisdom, orderliness and creativity.  As Paul reminds us, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made …” (Romans 1:20).

Soaring mountains.  Expansive oceans.  Roaring waterfalls.  The brilliant display of bountiful stars in a night sky.  The rich colors of fall leaves in the sunlight.  The varied and wonderful creatures that populate this world.  The complexity of our bodies; the miraculous-ness of life itself.  All of creation clearly testifies to the Creator. 

But is there anything in nature that illustrates Him?

The other night as I stood on our dock and gaped at the northern lights exploding in the sky above me, I wondered if maybe the aurora borealis comes the closest to picturing God.

The official explanation of the lights is that they are charged particles shooting out from the sun that slam into oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere, which results in ionizing those molecules and causing them to glow in the night sky.  Unofficially (but uniformly), everyone who witnesses the phenomenon agrees that the northern lights are breathtaking.   

Kinda like our God!

Now again, there are multiple things in nature that are breathtaking when seen.  But is there anything else that appears quite as magical, mystical and mysterious as the aurora borealis?  The various shades of pinks, purples and greens dancing so artfully in the sky; the streaks of glorious light streaming and stretching down to earth.

The lights can appear in various colors.  Green is the most common, but shades of pink, red, blue and purple are also sometimes observed. Even yellow, on rare occasions.  Kinda like our multi-faceted Lord.

However, there are three primary colors – green, pink/red, and blue/purple – which blend into one unique and gorgeous palette.  Kinda like the Trinity.

Those ionized molecules bursting into our atmosphere create lovely light streaming in the darkness from heaven to earth below. 

Kinda like God, who is light (1 Jn. 1:5) and Jesus, who is the Light in the darkness (Jn. 1:5), the Light of the world and the Light of our life (Jn. 8:12), not to mention the Light of our salvation (Ps. 27:1).  Then there is also God’s Word, streaming from God himself, which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths (Ps. 119:105).

Earlier, I referred to the lights as magical, mystical and mysterious.  (And they feel that way!)  I’m hesitant to use mystical and magical to describe the Lord because of the current connotations of those words.  Yet, if considered in the proper context, they can apply. 

One definition of “mystical” is “transcending human understanding.”  (Our God is certainly that!) 

In the same way, “magical” is defined as “beautiful or delightful in such a way as to seem removed from everyday life.”  In other words – wonderfully unparalleled. (Our God is that too!) 

And the Lord is certainly mysterious.  (We can’t begin to comprehend him.)  

But even though the Lord is transcendent, wonderfully unparalleled, and incomprehensible, he is always deliberate and loving in his actions.  Though we may at times not understand the blending colors in our current circumstances, they are always beautiful – even if difficult – because the loving Lord is painting them.

And those sweeping flows of colors … they’re unpredictable and uncontrollable. 

That’s God too!  Unpredictable and uncontrollable.  (Though he does always answer prayer!  Yet we don’t ever know quite how he will answer).  Yet our unpredictable and uncontrollable God is very predictable in this way: he is always displaying love to his children. 

The height of the northern lights can actually reach an astonishing 620 miles.  As for the Lord, David addresses him in this way, “Great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies” (Psalm 57:10).

We humans have to lift our eyes to see the lights.  And we have to lift them also to see the One who created them.  (Is. 40:26).  Our God is “in the heights of heaven” (Job 22:12).  He is far above us – both technically, physically, mentally and spiritually.  His thoughts and his ways are incomprehensibly higher than ours. (Is. 55:8-9).

Furthermore, just as the northern lights are often best viewed through our phone cameras, so the Lord has given us the lens of the Scriptures to bring out the colors and wonders of our God and his grace, to enable us to better understand our un-understandable God, and to move us to faith or to a stronger faith. 

The aurora borealis are literally awe-inspiring. 

Our Lord?  Even more so!

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Psalm 19:1-4
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.