Higher

"For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."  Isaiah 55 

As the little capsule shaped elevator methodically made its way higher and higher, my lack of appreciation for confined spaces began to kick in. I closed my eyes and started to take long deep breaths as we gained altitude with every click of the elevator. Finally, we made it. The top of the St. Louis arch. It really was an amazing view from the little windows at the top. It felt so much higher than it looked from the ground especially when I felt it sway in the wind. Yikes! I mentally noted there was something about a higher vantage point that allowed for a clearer perspective. 
 
God through his prophet Isaiah revealed so much about himself and his heart for you and me. He invites us to come to him with our ears wide open. The reason for this instruction is the infinite "higher than" of God. We are simply incapable of producing his thoughts or ways. He must reveal those to us. He lets us know that our thoughts are nothing like his, his ways beyond our capacity to imagine. When received and entered into, his word produces a joy and a peace that simply cannot be found anywhere else. He is the Rock that is higher than us. 
 
We struggle every day with the tension between our perspective and God's. We're pretty sure our assessment of the circumstances in our lives is on target. These are bad. These are good. This specific change needs to be made. God needs to make it happen and now would be a good time. Outside of the emotion of the moment, it strikes me as supremely foolish to think I can see more clearly than he can. An eternal perspective, complete knowledge of everything, and full sovereignty over all that is seen and unseen truly do uniquely qualify him to call the shots. "Listen," he says, "and you will find life."

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