Uncountably Merciful
I was thinking about my sin. Sometimes, I like to think it's powerful. I like to think it rears its head like a dragon, blasting fiery breath. Terrifying. Destructive. Unstoppable.
Sometimes, it really does feel as though it will obliterate me, crush me beyond recognition. Sometimes, I want to think that sin is the equal opposite of God's mercy and grace.
Shouldn't it be? The wages of sin is death. By my sin, I earn death: complete and eternal. If God is eternal and if the death I earn with my sin is eternal, are they not opposite but equal?
There are two kinds of infinite:
Aleph Zero is what they call "countably infinite." These are the kinds of things you can imagine but can't actually number. Like grains of sand, you can pick one up at a time, set it in a pile, say a number, and keep going. You'll just never reach the end.
Aleph One is what they call "uncountably infinite." These are the kinds of things you can't even begin to imagine how to count. Like raindrops, they fall separately but blend together if they get too close. If you pick one up, it quickly gets lost in other drops — or evaporates.
Though both technically infinite, Aleph One is infinitely more infinite.
The counting numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) are countably infinite. The real numbers (any arrangement of any number of decimals) are uncountably infinite.
There are more real numbers in between 1 and 2 than there are counting numbers between 1 and ∞.
God's mercy is like that.
My sins seem to line up endlessly, stretching to the horizon, stretching to infinity — and they really do.
However, God's mercy stretches infinitely farther. His grace fills all the spaces in between my sins. His grace layers infinitely atop and beneath my sins. His mercy travels infinitely back and forth between my sins. His grace coils around my sins in infinite strands. Each one of His mercies writes an infinite story, each of which rewrites all of my sins into the likeness of His son.
And there are infinitely more ways in which God's grace and mercy infinitely overcome my petty sins.
So I can line up my sins. I can count them one by one. I can note them and feel them. I can taste them and watch them pile up.
But, once I have amassed all of them, once I have collected the full measure of them, their size wouldn't even be noticeable next to a mere introduction to God's mercy.
Sometimes, it really does feel as though it will obliterate me, crush me beyond recognition. Sometimes, I want to think that sin is the equal opposite of God's mercy and grace.
Shouldn't it be? The wages of sin is death. By my sin, I earn death: complete and eternal. If God is eternal and if the death I earn with my sin is eternal, are they not opposite but equal?
There are two kinds of infinite:
 |
| Aleph Zero |
and
 |
| Aleph One |
Aleph Zero is what they call "countably infinite." These are the kinds of things you can imagine but can't actually number. Like grains of sand, you can pick one up at a time, set it in a pile, say a number, and keep going. You'll just never reach the end.
Aleph One is what they call "uncountably infinite." These are the kinds of things you can't even begin to imagine how to count. Like raindrops, they fall separately but blend together if they get too close. If you pick one up, it quickly gets lost in other drops — or evaporates.
Though both technically infinite, Aleph One is infinitely more infinite.
The counting numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) are countably infinite. The real numbers (any arrangement of any number of decimals) are uncountably infinite.
There are more real numbers in between 1 and 2 than there are counting numbers between 1 and ∞.
God's mercy is like that.
My sins seem to line up endlessly, stretching to the horizon, stretching to infinity — and they really do.
However, God's mercy stretches infinitely farther. His grace fills all the spaces in between my sins. His grace layers infinitely atop and beneath my sins. His mercy travels infinitely back and forth between my sins. His grace coils around my sins in infinite strands. Each one of His mercies writes an infinite story, each of which rewrites all of my sins into the likeness of His son.
And there are infinitely more ways in which God's grace and mercy infinitely overcome my petty sins.
So I can line up my sins. I can count them one by one. I can note them and feel them. I can taste them and watch them pile up.
But, once I have amassed all of them, once I have collected the full measure of them, their size wouldn't even be noticeable next to a mere introduction to God's mercy.
This post makes me want to break out in worship of our merciful God! Now THIS is the goal of true education. It all points back to His praise. Thank you for writing this post! I can't tell you how much I loved it.
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