That Is Nifty!" Psalms 66: 1-20 Key Verse(S): 3 ...  PRO

“That IS Nifty!” Psalms 66: 1-20 Key verse(s): 3 “Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you.”

“The greatest single distinguishing feature of the omnipotence of God is that our imagination gets lost when thinking about it” –– Blaise Pascal, Pensees

A young boy traveling by airplane to visit his grandparents sat beside a man who happened to be a seminary professor. The boy was reading a Sunday school take-home paper when the professor thought he would have some fun with the lad. “Young man,” said the professor, “If you can tell me something God can do, I’ll give you a big, shiny apple.” The boy thought for a moment and then replied, “Mister, if you can tell me something God can’t do, I’ll give you a whole barrel of apples!” As I was growing up, perhaps the “niftiest” thing that I understood about God wasn’t His great wisdom, or even His unbounded love. I guess I reserved those two divine characteristics of God for my father and mother respectively. Sure, I had been taught that there was no one or nothing in this world that was smarter than God. Fact is, whenever something went really wrong in my life, my Dad, the wisest man in my little world, was quick to tell me that “God knew what He was doing. Don’t complain about it; He’s smarter than you are!” And love? Well, for a boy growing up in a world of scraped knees and daily disappointment, nothing or no one could rival Mom for that. It just seemed that her embrace and her smile were the source of all the love that I would need; at least when I was ten years old.

Of course I learned of God’s unsurpassed love in Sunday school and especially from my Mom. I recall sitting in my bedroom as a small boy listening to my sisters blue and white, J.C. Penny’s portable record player. I was putting one after another of those handy little 45 rpm singles over the fat spindle. I plunked a “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know!” selection on and sat and sang along. “For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak and He is strong!” My Mom just happened to walk into the room with folded laundry in her hands and complimented my singing. “That’s right, dear! Jesus loves you! I just love to listen to you sing, Mark!” “They are weak, but He is strong!” Yes, I knew that Jesus loved me. But, to a boy of ten, the fact that God was strong seemed far more important to a young boy striving to be the fastest, strongest, and smartest kid on the block. Strength was the key to survival in my world and that’s what impressed me the most about God; He was so powerful, the most powerful being in all the universe. Now that’s something to write a song about!

If I could have shared just one characteristic of God at that young age, there was no doubt about it. It would be omnipotence, all power. Wisdom seemed like something that would come in handy later in life. And love? Well, let’s just say that was something for girls. I really didn’t understand clearly what omnipresence meant, so that didn’t register on my wish list much. But all power? Now that would be really nifty! That big kid who picked on me? Toast! And being able to break through the line over tackle? They’d never see me coming! Typically, power to a ten year old boy was something pretty self-defining and absolutely self-perpetuating. Thank God that He chose to use His power to perfect His creation rather than His authority. Not apparent to a ten year old boy, it would be years before I understood the real meaning of an all-powerful God. His power resides and is most effective in what He created not in what He deems to do to it. He is glorified not in His power over His creation but in His authority through it. We often use our power to disturb,...