The Most High

Every time we have been truly amazed by something in life we were being prepared for the one true wonder. We have not yet known awe until we meet The Most High.

On a scale of one to infinity

“Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.”

― Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

We can’t help ourselves, humans. We don’t just appreciate something for its inherent qualities, it must be compared. A thing is not simply marvelous or hateful but it must also be more marvelous or hateful than others of its kind. And once we have found such a thing we must proclaim it as such. Amazon’s customer reviews bear me out. I love watching my kids at the dinner table eating something they really like. There is usually some expression of delight like rocking, swinging of the legs, humming or singing or outright praise for the food. “Mom this is so good” or, “Oh my God that is the best (whatever) you’ve made”. Once while comparing the weirdest foods we have ever eaten a friend remarked “That had the most disgusting smell I have encountered”, describing something that was considered a delicacy by people of another culture. The quality of the smell was remarkable precisely because it surpassed other smells on the scale of disgusting. Again some friends and I went to a concert and came away gushing about how that was the most amazing performance we had experienced. We truly had a good time and the music was amazing but without prompting and to a person we all invoked other performers and performances and affirmed that tonight’s performers and performance surpassed all the others.

This is my theory for why we do this. The universe is ordered and proceeds along a predictable path, all its uncountable gazillion atoms everywhere doing what nature compels them to do. What we encounter everyday are all the parts of the great whole doing their thing. This we call normal. We expect this and it is no surprise when normal happens, it is supposed to. Therefore we stop noticing what is ordinary. Every once in a while though, something truly remarkable smacks us in the face with a, “well what do you think about this?” In that moment we notice the extraordinary because of the contrast with the ordinary and we can’t help but exclaim in awe, “Whoa that is the most (insert an adjective here) thing I have ever seen or tasted or heard or felt”. That response comes when the boundaries of what we thought possible are questioned. You thought you had seen it all and now here comes this thing that says, “O really!” The funny thing is, the extraordinary, no matter what it is, is only so because we know the ordinary. The seeming exception to the rule strikes us because there is a rule. It’s even funnier when you realize that even the extraordinary still obeys all the rules, just in an unexpected way with an unexpected outcome.

The funny thing is, the extraordinary, no matter what it is, is only so because we know the ordinary.

All things great and small

We might be tempted to say that there is no such thing as extraordinary, simply a wide variation in what we call ordinary. When we call things ordinary we imply that they are supposed to exist, that this is how they should be and therefore no one should be surprised that they are that way. There is a sense of entitlement in this way of thinking. Like, why would you expect it to be any different? That, I think, is a mistake. Nothing is supposed to be anything. The universe is not supposed to behave in any particular way and its laws don’t have to make sense or work to our advantage. In fact, laws governing the behavior of all things need not exist. We are not entitled to anything. In that case I choose to see everything as extraordinary with some things being more so than others. There are wonders as far as the eye can see in the microscopic and gigantic. From the lowliest atom to the greatest star there is majesty, mystery, wonder, grandeur and beauty enough to stir a lifetime of awe. Just because these wonders occur, and occur frequently, does not diminish their wonder. One of my favorites, because of what I do for a living, is a newborn baby. It never gets old for me to consider that this supremely complex, multi-trillion-cell, screaming little person started out their existence as a single cell a mere 9 months ago. The sheer number of processes involved, the precision and timing of every step and the mind boggling number of ways things could go wrong that don’t, is staggering. And yet it has happened like clockwork more than 7 billion times and counting. Then there is the untold potential each newborn represents. Each time I look at one I wonder, what will they be or do? What great person am I looking at? I’m sure everyone has the thing that does it for them. We are surrounded by wonder, nothing is ordinary. But of all these amazing things which is the most amazing?

From the lowliest atom to the greatest star, there is majesty, mystery, wonder, grandeur and beauty enough to stir a lifetime of awe.

The greatest of them all.

Each person can only experience a very minute part of the wonder of the universe personally. The thing is, the universe is one whole entity. Though it may not always seem obvious, all its many parts fit together perfectly, being governed by universal principles. It is a whole. What if it were possible to see and comprehend the entire universe at once and know how every piece fits together with the others? That seems like it would be the most amazing thing of all. A thing truly worthy of awe. Or would it?

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Romans1:19

Imagine going up to a great author, one who had written the most insightful, interesting, funny, thought provoking, life changing book of all time and asking him which of the letters in his book is most amazing, or which word is the most significant in the book, or which sentence is his greatest achievement, or which chapter in the book is his favorite? Clearly none of the letters, words, sentences or chapters are anything in comparison to the entirety of the book. All the little parts are significantly less meaningful standing alone. They have value and significance insofar as they make the book complete. More than that though, is the fact that even the greatest book ever written is never as great as it’s author. People attend book signings because, after they have read and been impacted by the record of someone’s thoughts on a page, they want to meet the person from whom the thoughts came. The author is greater than the sample of his thoughts we have in our hands.

The Highest praise.

Since we cannot help ourselves, we must measure the value of everything on our little scales of great and small. Somewhere on that scale there is a place for the greatest of them all. As impressive as the parts of our universe are, they pale by comparison to the grandeur of the whole. But even that is dwarfed by the maker of it all. The one whose genius, wisdom, understanding, generosity, love, majesty and goodness are revealed in what is made, takes first place. We have been provided with wondrous bread crumbs on a path leading us always upward until we come up to him who is aptly named The Most High. In his presence we will find that we have not known anything worth noting till now. In fact our sense of awe, that quest for the truly praiseworthy, exists solely for the day when we find the one to whom all praise belongs, the Creator. The breadcrumbs are nice but we must not miss the point. We must save our greatest praise for the greatest one of all.

We have been provided with wondrous breadcrumbs on a path leading us always upward until we come up to him who is aptly named the Most High.