Not too long ago, I read that if we were to construct an average (Protestant) bible, it would contain about 807,000 words and be around 1,200 pages long. The average Catholic bible would be a little larger because of the seven additional books. If you’re not a reader, that may sound like a lot of pages but it’s not that many more than “Gone with the Wind” and it’s quite a few less than “War and Peace”.

It’s hard for me to imagine that pretty well everything we know about God can be contained in this one little 1,200 page book. And seeing it’s so relatively small and that we’ve had so long to study, analyze and discuss it, I would think that by now we would all agree on what it says and means. Apparently though, the opposite is true. Not only do we not agree on what it says and means, but that disagreement is so strong that we’ve found it necessary to go out and create thousands of subgroups in Christianity we refer to as denominations, each with at least a slightly different opinion on what this little book says. Depending on which study you choose to believe, there may be over 35,000 different Christian denominations in existence today, each with a different view of what this little book we call the bible is saying.

Even within the same denomination there is not always agreement as to what this book has to say. And every time we create a new and different subgroup we are in a sense creating a new and different God. And because with God there is only one truth and that truth never changes, it has to mean that these subgroups contain varying amounts of truth. It has to also mean that some contain less truth than others and has in effect a smaller God than others.

I have recently begun to notice that we don’t even have to belong to different denominations or go to different churches to have different sized Gods. Technically, we all believe that God is omnipotent, meaning he is all-powerful, that he has supreme power with no limitations—that he can do anything, anywhere and anytime he wants. And yet, we are regularly making our God a little smaller by applying limitations to him.

When I look around at our country and world, maybe even my own community and see all the pride, greed and selfishness, the anger, senseless violence, death and unnecessary suffering going on—when I can see more and more people believing there is no God and even getting angry at those of us who do—when I sometimes in the back of my mind question whether God is really in charge and in control—when I can’t understand how God could let these things happen or believe our world would be like this if all things really work together for our good—what does that say about the size of my God?

When I can say I believe God has plans for my life—but I know it’s not something big—what does that say about the size of my God?

When I believe I’m good enough like I am and where I am in my spirituality—what does that say about the size of my God?

When I know God wants me to do something but I am just waiting for the right time—what does that say about the size of my God?

When I know that he calls me to be holy and perfect, but I know he must be talking about the next life because it’s impossible for him to do it with me in this one—what does that say about the size of my God?

When I just won’t make God first in my life over everything and everyone—when I don’t feel the need or the desire to be closer to Him whatever that takes—what does that say about the size of my God?

When I believe that how God and I think is anything at all alike—what does that say about the size of my God?

When I believe knowing what is in those 1,200 pages is the same as knowing God and when I believe that knowing God is the same as loving God—what does that say about the size of my God?

No matter what denomination we may belong to, the size of our God is largely determined by us.

We can choose to believe as it seems many of us do, that God is not really active in our world any more, that he is just sitting back, relaxing, taking it easy, waiting for that last day to finally arrive. After all, he has known from the beginning of time exactly what was going to happen throughout all eternity. So why do we need a big God? There is really not that much for him to do.

Or, we can choose to believe in a  God who when he took a look at the beginning of time and saw everything that was going to happen throughout all eternity; what he saw also included him and everything he would do with us and for us and through us throughout all time. It included him talking to us, listening to us, placing thoughts in our minds, suggesting we do this and not that. It included closing opportunities and relationships while opening others and leading us to places he wanted us to go and to people he wanted us to influence or be influenced by. It included trials and suffering and even death. It included everything necessary to mold us into the person he created us to be. This God is a working God, 7 days a week 24 hours a day with no time off and no holidays to do all these things he saw himself doing at the beginning of time.

His purpose is to get each and every one of us to heaven and he’ll do anything and everything in his unlimited power to get that done.

Do we really believe God can be contained in 1,200 pages?

Maybe the bible is like a treasure map. It contains a little information about the treasure (God) to whet our appetite and build our interest and hopefully get us started on the journey. But more importantly it’s a map showing us where God is hiding, the direction we need to go and what we need to do to get there. And once we find him, then we can begin to really know him and to love him.

It’s your choice.

Which God do you choose?