He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever—holy and awesome is his name. (Ps. 111:9)
Do you ever get excited by what you don’t understand? For me, bioluminescence is one of those topics. The fact that some organisms can create and emit light—some that are too small to see can make whole swathes of ocean glow at night—borders on the magical.
Of course, there’s a solution to my lack of understanding. I can read books about bioluminescence and study biology and biochemistry. The same can’t be said for certain other areas of ignorance. We will never completely understand time, for instance, and what it means for someone to exist outside it, to be eternal.
Psalm 111:10 repeats an idea central to biblical wisdom literature: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” But the preceding verse helps contextualize that fear: God is holy and awesome.
Our struggles, as we try to mature spiritually, are vanishingly small compared to his eternal promise of grace, extended to all humanity. Wisdom and spiritual maturity seem like areas where discipline is core. Yet fear is not a sensation we think of as intentional but as a natural response to something outside ourselves, something unknowable.
If the first step toward wisdom is fear of God, then the first step toward fear is to consider a God who exists outside time, who holds absolute power, who extends eternal grace, and who deserves unending praise.
Sit quietly and consider God’s infinite nature.
Lindsey Priest is an Indiana Wesleyan University graduate who lives in Arkansas. She likes to read to her kids, play video games with her husband, and refurbish furniture.
© 2022 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
