This is where I’m supposed to cobble together some title that clues you in to what you’re about to read. Just so happens, you’re SOL. ;-)

As a kid, I recollect lying in bed one evening and thinking that nothing was something… that there was absolutely no such thing as “no thing” because “thing” was something, and that a void, or chasm were things which also existed because there was something before and after, and which may have surrounded the same void or chasm. I reasoned further, that the existence of a void, or chasm could only be identified first by the presence of another thing which was opposite. Those thoughts I had long before I’d heard of the names of the world’s great philosophers, or even read any of their thoughts. My questioning led me to suppose that, when I met the Almighty – I still aspire to that Beatific Vision – I would ask Him, “Where did you come from?”

For quite some time, I have also shared that we understand the things we do not now understand by comparing them to the things we do understand. We analogize. It was fascinating – indeed exciting – to recently hear a scientific researcher – an astrophysicist – say almost verbatim the exact same thing.

In much the same way, we use our brains to understand.

My comment has thus been prefaced.

The Scripture tells us in Proverbs 25:2 that “It is the glory of God to hide things but the glory of kings to investigate them.”

The how’s and why’s of our physical workings – our bodies, those electrochemical mechanical organisms – presupposes that there is a physical Cause and Effect for everything. And simply because we cannot see a thing does not mean that it does not exist. And yet, a synapse, an atom, are all things – things which are exceedingly smaller than which our unaided eyes can see. And so, we build things to see the “invisible” close up – with scanning electron microscopes – and far away – X-Ray telescopes, the Hubble telescope, etc.

There is some dispute that Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin ever said while he was alleged to have said after being in outer space – that he did not see God. But the sentiment remains. We expect to see God with our eyes.

We have the record of men who did handle God. Their testimony, which John relates, says that “The Word of life existed from the beginning. We have heard it. We have seen it. We observed and touched it.”

The LORD Christ testified saying, “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” He then asked for some of the fish they were cooking, and ate that which they gave Him.

Even Jesus Christ’s post-resurrection appearance among those assembled behind locked doors was physical. Luke’s Gospel indicates, “That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.”

How did He “suddenly” appear?

We know there are subatomic particles, many of which can penetrate walls and other seemingly impenetrable objects. Even today, we are using radio frequency – which travels at the speed of light – to see into, through and beyond walls, fallen rock in mines and other seemingly impenetrable objects.

There are resonant frequencies in things. We know what the resonant frequencies in some things are, while in others, we do not know. There are likely more unknown resonant frequencies of things than those known. And yet, our not knowing does not mean that they do not exist. We understand also that our words are physical things – they create vibrations and changes in the physical world.

And as one of the laws of physics tells us, theoretically, we ought to be able to go back in time if we could travel faster than the speed of light. At this juncture, we know of one or two particles that may travel faster than light, but again, we have only a hint that they may. We do not know with certainty. We do know, however, that we can travel faster than the speed of sound. And yet, what we cannot figure out how to do is to gather together the dissipated sound energy from any sound, including our voices. If we could, according to the laws of physics, we ought to be able to store – record – that sound for playback. Which, if we could, we could possibly hear the words of the LORD Jesus Christ – perhaps even the words “Let there be light.”

How can these things happen?

We learn and understand because we continue to research, and thus we explain and teach. Our understanding of the physical world allows us to do more things more efficiently. But we have not yet become the masters of our universe. There are more things we do not know, than things we do know. We do not, for example, know a cure for all cancers. We do not know where the stuff for the Big Bang came from. We do not know where outer space ends. We do not know how to travel faster than the speed of light. We do not know how to make iron float, make transparent steel, or how to create life.

And yet, for all the things we do not know, there is One whom can. That One is the Creator, for every creator knows their creation exceedingly better than any other.

Thus, we can understand that the Creator of the universe knew how to move in, through and about without being seen – and it was not magic. It was science that we do not yet comprehend.

Thus, we come again to another question regarding the nature of the Holy One. That question is this: Is God physical?

The Scriptures tell us that “God is spirit.” And yet, we do not know with certainty exactly and precisely what spirit is. As we know and describe, it is something we cannot put our hands upon. Can we, for example, place our hands upon a relationship? Is it possible to touch and possess fatherhood or friendship? There is certainly no way to “bottle it up,” to encapsulate and sell it, or consume it. And yet we measure those same things – relationships – by things that we can neither measure, all which are compared against that thing called “LOVE.”

And further, we identify and measure love by what it is not.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Thus, “this means what can be seen was made by something that could not be seen.”

How then, can we possibly perceive, comprehend or understand a Being Whose essence is Pure Love?

Again, we come to understand the things we do not know by the things that we do know. And so, “this is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

If we “lay down our lives for our brothers,” we give them (or it, that being our life) up. We give it away, we sacrifice it. We can sacrifice our lives for our brothers, and yet continue to live and breathe. We can practice a type of living death. By dying to oneself – that self being our own desires, our own thinking, our own ways – we can then begin to live anew in a Divine life.

That concept – of Redemptive Suffering – is oft heard in the phrase “offer it up.”

So, exactly what does that mean? What is Redemptive Suffering?

Well, every article has to have a natural starting and finishing point, but in this case, I’ll simply write this:

TO BE CONTINUED…