1.15.2005

Musical Musings: "Idescribable", Chris Tomlin

Chris Tomlin - Indescribable
From the album Arriving

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea,
Creation's revealing Your majesty.
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring,
Every creature unique in the song that it sings. All exclaiming...

(Chorus)
Indescribable, Uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God.
All powerful, Untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees and we humbly proclaim,
You are amazing God.

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go,
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow?
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light,
Yet conceals it to give us the coolness of night?
None can fathom...

(Chorus)

Incomparable, Unchangeable,
You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same.
You are amazing God.



I bought the "Arriving" CD for this song. When I read the lyrics to my husband, he commented that it sounds like the poetry I write, and perhaps why this peice resonates within me the way it does. Friday night, on the way home from a girls night out (went to go see Andrew Lloyd Weber's Phantom of the Opera), I heard KLOVE play it, and as I meditated on the lyrics, I was moved to tears...concerning, for a moment, my companions, until I explained myself. So what is my deal with this song?

Psalms, written by David, the flawed king of Isreal, described as a man after God's own heart, speaks of the glories of God repeatedly. In Job, God's answer concerns itself with the glories of His creation. In Genesis, from the first words of the Bible, we are confronted with the great and awesome power of God, who spoke all of creation into being. The uncaused cause, the unmade maker, the pre-existant existance that is our God, created space and time with a word. Without sitting down and sketching out a rough draft, God reached into non-existance and called forth existance. He created the universe we inhabit, ingnited the stars, and set the galaxies in motion. God formed the sun, and the moon to reflect it. He formed the earth, and then he made it a haven for his greatest creation. Having spoken everything in all of the universe into being, God Almighty reached down and formed man with His own hands. He breathed a living soul into us, making us to be like Him. He who is love desired to express His love in ways our minds cannot even begin to fathom, and He formed us to love us, even if we never loved Him back. He formed us to love us. The amazing thing about it, though, is the fact that, since He exists outside of the confines of time and space as we understand it, He could see all of eternity stretched out before Him before it was set into motion. Even as He contemplated the way He would love us, He could see the fall of Adam and Eve, the flood and Noah's ark, the crucifixion, and even you and I today. He made humanity to love humanity even as He knew we would betray Him. Knowing we would fail Him, knowing we would reject Him, still He loved us so much that He formed us anyway. He made us, He promised to love us just as we are, and asked us to choose to return His love, allowing us to refuse Him.
And this is the God who loves us. This is the God that, according to Zephaniah 3:17, will sing in joy over us. You and I delight our maker, and the love song He has prepared for us is far greater than any mind has imagined. I am certain that there is not a single thing outside of the all-mighty, all-powerful, grasp and control of my God. Not a wave, not a wind, not the smallest sub-atomic particle or force, nor the largest body in space. If there was anything outside of his reach, outside of His ability, He would be nothing remarkable, nothing to worship. But that is not the case, and no bolt of lightning strikes the earth without His direction or His permission.
That might seem hard to imagine. If God is so good, so powerful, why do we have the horrors we do on earth? Why would a loving God allow a hell to exist, much less condemn these people He loves so much to an eternity there? I know that these, and other questions are rolling about within you. They troubled me, too, for a long time. But see, when you begin to understand the nature of love, of holiness, of justice, of these things that God is, in His very nature, they begin to make sense. True love never obliges its own return. Love is at it purest when its object is free to reject it. If the one loved cannot choose to willingly love in return, than anything it returns is a mockery. So God, who is Love, made us so that we could reject Him, so that we could choose whether or not to return His love, so that when we do, it can be Love. However, when we see all things clearly, after death, choice is stripped away. In that moment, when we realise the true nature of God and His amazing love for us, we can do nothing but acknowledge Him. So if we are to be truly free, if our love for Him is to be pure, it must be sealed at the time we die. If, when we die, we have chosed to reject Him, to refuse Him, to reject His love and refuse to return it, that choice must be sealed at death if it is to be a choice at all. If you refuse Him, then He loves you enough to allow you to be seperated from Him...and Hell is born. No one is sent to Hell...they choose it, whether by comission or omission. He loves us enough to let us refuse Him. And what of holiness and justice? God is perfect, set apart, without flaw or failure. That is who and what He is. He is, by definition, seperated from imperfection. Justice requires an answer for failure, and Holiness demands perfection. But God is merciful, also, and He provided for His justice out of love. He gave us His son, the second who in the what that is our Triune God. Perfection, in the form of a man, in the body of the Christ, was made to become every imperfection in humanity, seperating Him from Holy God. He took all imperfection into death, defeating Satan's planned coup on the kingdom of God, and left it in death when He rose Himself from death's grip. Then He offered to allow us to claim His sacrifice for the Justice God demands.
This is the God who loves us. Seeing our failure, seeing our hearts and our imperfection, God created the universe and us. Seeing the cross and the price He would pay for our redemption, still He formed us to love us. The God who knows EVERY STAR by name, who has counted every hair on every head through eternity, who created us, knows us, and loves us anyway. You are amazing, God. You are truly amazing!

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