Supernatural

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

You and I have limits. Sorry to disappoint you.

But God who created you and I, He does not have any limitations. Nothing is too hard for God.

His power is infinite. He can defeat any evil and restore whatever was lost. His justice is perfect. He returns to everyone what they have sown. His wisdom is infamous. He teaches and corrects without error.

His love is flawless. Perfect. Complete.

It's hard to imagine God or even begin to understand Him. Does a machine understand its inventor? It may behave and perform like its maker, mimicking intelligence, but can it comprehend the intentions, purposes and emotions of the one that conceptualized, designed, and engineered it?

You see, God created us and that includes the depths and heights of our knowledge and understanding. And despite our progress and ever-evolving ability to dissect and harness the framework of our reality, we are still limited to what God has defined - both in us and in the world we were placed. Like a computer programmer that writes code, God wrote our code and the code for our environment. And even if we do find ways to alter that code, we can never add or take away from it. The programmer exists beyond the code but the code is contained without the boundaries the programmer has set.

I have a little experiment I want you to try. Think of a new color. Invent one. There's just one rule - it has to be unique and cannot be the product of other colors.

Can it be done?

SUPERNAT'URAL, adjective [super and natural.] Being beyond or exceeding the powers or laws of nature; miraculous. (Webster's Dictionary, 1828)

What we see around us, the world we live in (including the sun, moon, stars, etc.) exists within God's design. We cannot add or take away from it. Everything within creation is called "the natural." We can touch it, study it, get to know it, and begin to understand it. On the contrary, everything that exists beyond creation is called "supernatural." As the dictionary states, for something to be supernatural it must exceed the powers or laws of nature.

If creation has a Creator, then would the Creator exist within its design or outside of it? Don't think too hard. The answer is easy - God, our Creator, exists outside of creation. The Bible is loaded with praise and worship for God describing, as best we can understand, His existence beyond the natural...

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Your glory above all the earth. (Psalm 108:5)

Let them praise the name of the LORD, for His name alone is exalted; His glory is above earth and heaven. (Psalm 148:13)

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built! (1 Kings 8:27)

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. (Isaiah 40:22)

While God is supernatural, He does work within the natural. After all, He created it. He set the laws of physics. He engineered our reality. He is the Chief Scientist and Mathematician. Therefore, He knows how to work all things together to produce certain outcomes.

I recall a TV show that tried to "debunk" God's involvement in miraculous events by explaining how, within the natural world, they could occur. I was genuinely impressed that this individual (and his research team) could figure out how, in the natural state of the world, the Red Sea could be parted and Moses could have led the Israelites across to safety. However, rather than "debunk" God, all this did was prove that the very events described in scripture are indeed accurate. Whether God worked within the natural to perform miracles or intervened supernaturally may not always be known for sure. I personally lean towards an acceptance that most miracles can be explained in the natural. Does that mean God wasn't involved? No.

There are miracles all around us, some tangible and others intangible. The miracle of childbirth. The miracle of forgiveness. The miracle of repentance. Our very consciousness is a miracle. And of course, Jesus.

Jesus is the ultimate miracle. No one pieces all of this together better than Christ. He is both God and man. Our Creator turned flesh, to live among us and serve us. Jesus' love is a miracle - how in His perfection He could still love us to the point of death, despite our rebellious hearts.

And though we continue to rebel against Him daily, Jesus continues to love us. Are you as moved as I am that our infinitely powerful Creator would lay down His supernaturality and bleed for us?

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8)