Edges of His Ways

My mother used to use a book of devotions by Amy Carmichael who was a well known missionary of the last century from Northern Ireland who served in India. I remember the title. It was called “Edges of His Ways”. I think I discovered today where that title was probably taken from. In the Book of Job, after all that he has passed through, Job describes the amazing power of God in the vastness of the Heavens, and the greatness of the oceans. And at the end of that chapter he says that

“these are but the outer fringes - the edges - of his works. How faint the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?” (Job 26:14)

Makes me think of the seaside, the sand between your toes, and that mysterious foam that froths and bubbles and disappears so quickly from the hot sand with the receding wave. Growing up only five miles from the ocean, I’ve always had a fascination with the edges of the sea - the tidal pools - rugged cliffs - sweeping strands. (The photos are from last summer’s adventure down the south west Alentejano coast of Portugal - highly recommended). As you wade out into the water and you feel the pull of the tide, and the strength of the surf, you suddenly realise how much more of all this there is. You look out to the horizon and you see a heaving ocean. And you get that strange sense of peril side by side with safety, of the powerful and dangerous alongside the gentle.

God is a bit like that. What we know and understand of him are the mere edges of his ways - that which we have to come to know of His grace and His love. These are the shallow waters where we learn to swim and enjoy that sense of floating, and experiencing His presence around us. But that is but the beginning. There’s an ocean of understanding and experience out there. We just need to go that little bit deeper. As Job says, if we remain in the shallows how will we ever understand the thunder of his power.