oh, great

I’d like to get literal here. Forget metaphors. Just for second, let’s get rid of poetry and lovely phrasing. I’d like to share with you in the style of my spoken, everyday language. Because I really want someone to get this with me. Ready?

I’d like to examine the phrase: God is Great. I’m not talking about “wow, that was really great!”, or great as in “awesome”, or “woah, that blows-my-mind”. I’m speaking literally: great as in big.

I’m talking literally as great big as a mountain, actually as big as all mountains combined. Get what I mean? Every. Single. Mountain. Combined. …that’s big. Imho, that’s great big.

Now let’s add in the ocean, every ocean: so, that means the entire pacific ocean, the entire the atlantic ocean, the entire indian ocean, the entire arctic ocean… and so, then, all the water in all those oceans, and all the whales, every single individual whale, and every single fish and school of fish. With me?

And then every single solitary bird and every single one of each of the animals and their babies on earth: so we’re talking like lions and tigers and bears, but then also, like, honey badgers and every single kitten, and insects and everything. Also, every single person on earth. All 6 billion of the people who live on this planet. Sorry, forgot: AND all the clouds, weather, sun, moon and stars.

Remember, we are talking literally all of that. God is what I call all of that. All. Of that.

Each individual part, physically and literally, and the sum of all of these parts together. That is really big, and by big I mean great. And by God is Great this is what I mean.

Of course, for me, God isn’t only the literally understanding of all that bigness. God is both that and the experience of living withing all that bigness. The: “wow, that was really great!”, “awesome”, and “woah, that blows-my-mind” understanding and experience of all "it all".

In other words, living and experiencing, as we do today here on earth, every connection between each of these individual literal/physical parts, and then the sum of all those connections; and, the living wisdom of every past connection and sum; and the potential of every future connection and sum. For me this Greatness is, logically speaking, absolutely amazing. Truly awe-inspiring. And, for me, this qualifies as Great. So great that, for me, this is again the very definition of what God is. Therefore, in this second understanding too: God is Great.

For my there is a third meaning too: which is the Great Mystery of what holds all this together and makes all this happen. These are the immeasurables. Mountains can be measured to be so many metres high, oceans so many metres deep, animals can be counted, for example. Science, physics, chemistry can explain so many physical realities. Similarily, the social science help us to understand more deeply human connection, relationships, movements and so on.

But there is something more. There are some things that are just so inexplicable, try as we might to understand, to control, to influence, to direct. We just can't. Some things remain a great mystery.

What is the great mystery? I think everyone defines that in their own way. For me, love is one of the great mysteries that I think everyone identifies with. Connection. Courage. Determination. Birth. Death. Freedom. Choice. Intelligence. Creativity. Healing. Imagination. And I am sure many, many more.

Each of these is so unique to the context—the moment, to the person, to the place, to the time—and yet are so universal. Each has an incredible ability to define moments, and define—or redefine—the individual living with them, and ourselves as members of families, communities, or as the human race in general.

Let’s examine an easy one, say, love. How does love happen? For me, I love and have loved so many people in my lifetime. Each of these loves has been completely different: love towards my parents, my grandparents, a best friend, a lover, a girlfriend, my wife, my neice, toward myself. My life has been defined by these loves. Love for my work, love of music, contemporary art, for family dinners and wrapping presents. Some more definable, more reason-able, than others. But, Love remains a great mystery for me. Love is Great. And because it exists, in my logic, this mystery of Love lends itself to inform the phrase: God is Great.

So, this, right now, is how I understand the phrase: God is Great. In breadth width depth height, over all of time, including all potential and all mystery. Literally.

I would love to know your thoughts, feelings, intuitions and aha!s on this topic. Please email me if you are inspired! Thank you for reading. xoaa