Friday, August 30, 2013

Infinity in Your Hands

A young photographer in Japan had an ambition. He would photograph the American West. So he set off on what he planned to be a series of little hops made by hitching rides until he had covered it all.

Shortly after he was let off in a vast desert region rimmed by distant mountains, it hit him. This place was vast beyond his imagining , beyond anything he had ever experienced in his home country.

His story ended well. He did take some very good pictures. But first he had to adjust his mind to how really big this place was. He soon transferred his travel plans to airplanes, and even then the distances to be traveled held him in awe.

Imagine you enter a well-equipped book store, and when the owner asks how he can help you, you say you would like a nice-sized book on everybody and everything. Also it should cover all time. You want a book not only about infinity, but that is itself infinite. The owner is not a bit perplexed. He knows just what you need and reaches to a shelf to get you a Bible.

There comes a time when ordinary life and ordinary subjects no longer satisfy. They bottom out. Your life itself seems to bottom out. But your tired mind need not despair. The strange nature of this living Word of God is, that what you need is there, no matter who you are or what your need.

This has been my story. Poor dumb me. I was in need of infinity. All along my unsatisfied life, a book was waiting for me, as it waits for you. This may be quite obvious to you. But to many it remains a mystery.

Let me be specific. I heard a radio drama where a very rich business man called his staff together. "I need some information," he told his gathered crew of experts. "What do you want?" one asked. "I want to know how to live forever," he said. It was a dramatic program, but not unique.

Roughly 4,000 years ago, Job asked, "If a man die, shall he live again?" To me, that was the ultimate question. It has been answered. No finite book could answer it, but an infinite book by an infinite Author can and did.

When I discovered this, I was never in doubt again. I never had to "bottom out" any more.

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