Firm Foundation

Feb 20, 2023

I was texting with a friend a few weeks back about an issue we were both grieving.

As we were chatting, we both almost simultaneously said, “Could you imagine going through this without God?” In seasons of suffering, I always find myself increasingly thankful for the prayers of my grandmother. I’m so thankful that I’ve known God for as long as I have due to the generations of faith that have preceded me. Because, on the nights when you’re tossing and turning, when you don’t understand, when the world isn’t making sense - I can have faith that there is a God in control of it all.

As my friend and I chatted about this, I pondered in my own heart, “Why is God so different? Why is it so much more comforting than putting your faith into a relationship or a career or a dream?” I thought of the powerful parable that Jesus shared of building your house on rock or sand:

Sand will be washed away, but rock is a firm foundation.

Our God is transcendent. He exists above and independent of His creation. All things are upheld by His mighty power, yet He is upheld by Himself alone. God is the rock that can be the sole source of comfort because, unlike anything else, He isn’t dependent upon ANYTHING to exist. Everything in life is sand. The person will fail us, the job will get difficult, the hair will gray, but God is transcendent. When we put our faith in Him we don’t have to be worried that He’ll wake up one day and not be God.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

- Isaiah 55:8-9

Transcendence can feel like a lofty, almost frightening concept. But in fact, I think it’s one of the most comforting attributes of our Creator.

We’ve all felt the fear of building a house on sand. The fear of throwing all of the money in this new endeavor, and wondering if it will take off as you’ve been promised. The fear of really trusting that they love you, wondering if your heart will be broken again. The fear of sending your kids off to college, wondering if everything you’ve taught them will stick.

If our identity is in being successful, loved, or the perfect parent, there will always be a storm that could wash it all away.

But if our identity is being a child of a transcendent God who exists independently of the storms of our world - then we’re in luck!

Our hearts can rest easy. We can sleep well at night. Because at the end of the day we know, no matter how big the storm is, no matter how much it hurts, we will wake up in the morning, and our God will still be God.

Our identity isn’t going anywhere, because it’s built upon a transcendent Creator.

And the most beautiful part is this. God exists above and independently of us, yet He chooses to come close to us. The unknowable seeks to be known. The comfort of His transcendence is accompanied by the beauty of His intimacy. And all of Creation exists to know Him more, and to bring Him glory.

If you’ve got a house built on sand and an identity formed on things of this world, you are going to experience pain and it could wash everything away. But if your house is built on a transcendent God who doesn’t need you but chooses to know you, you’re going to experience pain but you will forever be upheld by the hand of your Creator.