There is none like you, O Lord;
you are great, and your name is great in might.
Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
For this is your due;
for among all the wise ones of the nations
and in all their kingdoms
there is none like you. (Jer. 10:6-7)

Some time ago, I read a comment by one of the New Atheists that said something to the effect that as we have learned more about the Universe, it has shown itself to be more wonderful and magnificent than any god that he had ever heard of.

I thought at the time that this was a bizarre statement. In the historic Christian and Jewish tradition, God created the Universe. However wonderful it may be, the God who conceived it and made it must transcend it by far.

So much for the wise ones of our age.

God delights in mystery. The Greek word mysterion refers to something that once was hidden but now is revealed. As we look at the Universe with our increasingly sensitive and sophisticated equipment, mysteries are being revealed about the Creation that no one imagined before. The beauty of the Universe that we see in NASA photographs, the discovery of new astronomical bodies that do not behave the way they should, the utter weirdness of the subatomic world, all are mysteries that have now been revealed to us and that push us to try to comprehend them.

These mysteries have been hidden since the Creation, known only to God and the angels, but now after untold years have been discovered by humanity. God has waited this long for our “wise ones” to find what He has done in the Creation, and He must take real joy in our uncovering the secrets He built into the physical world. There are undoubtedly more revelations to come.

And, of course, He delights in revealing the greatest of all Mysteries to us, which is Himself.

But that is a subject for another post.