yottapixels and beyond

This is a tree just outside of Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario. I took this picture last November at way too low a resolution by mistake, but I think it gives the tree a cool jagged effect. At least that's what I tell myself.

Here is a story from my past that I have been thinking about lately: I was visiting a church one night with friends and the worship was wonderful and the Spirit was strong and most everyone there sensed God's presence in a tangible way. The worship leader stopped playing and we all just stood in silence for a bit, revelling in the sweetness of it. Then he said, "I think God is saying, 'It doesn't get any better than this.'" Before I could stop myself or even think about what I was doing, I found myself jumping up and down in the front row and yelling, "Yes, it does! It gets WAY better than this!" The worship leader graciously accepted my words and embraced them (love ya, Dan) and no harm was done other than Dean getting embarrassed (sorry, Dean). He has since come to mostly enjoy my unpredictable ways.

This phrase has become a sort of motto for my life since then. There has to be more to God than I have experienced, there must be more depth and breadth to his love than I know, he must be wiser and kinder and more powerful than I can imagine and more willing to make himself known than I ever give him credit for. When I think of him, I am quite certain that I underestimate his good intentions and his faithfulness. Sort of like my low resolution photo up there, my picture of him falls apart and pixelates into fuzziness all too quickly because I cannot hold the entire image of God in my mind or heart. His details are too minute for me to grasp and his largeness way beyond my peripheral vision. God is bigger and smaller than I can know or experience. You can zoom in or zoom out all you want with the most powerful instruments we have and never see his entire scope. The sweetest moment I have ever experienced will never be as good as it gets because God is always capable of more. The question is never how vast or powerful God is, but how much of Him am I willing to open my arms to and embrace. Will I let myself be overwhelmed?

A yotta pixel is 10 to the eighteenth power times larger than a megapixel.

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Names of God

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outWORD by Matte Downey

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