I like old books. So last week I started reading Confessions, by Augustine. Yes,that Augustine. It was written in AD 400 and I was captivated on page one.
Augustine lets us into his conversation with God. He’s wondering how it can be possible that God could “come to him,” since God is already everywhere. Since it is the presence of God which holds him together, how can the presence now enter his life as though for the first time? The meditation goes for several pages–Augustine marveling at the majesty and mystery that surround the God we worship–God so beyond what we can comprehend yet so willing to consider us.
On page two, he says:

Do heaven and earth contain you because you have filled them? or do you fill them and overflow them because they do not contain you? Where do you put the overflow of yourself after heaven and earth are filled? Or have you, who contain all things, no need to be contained by anything because what you will you fill by containing it?

Sometimes we think we’re so smart. Sometimes our technology lures us into thinking that we have a better understanding of life, of the universe. But it’s just not true. Maybe we know more about how things work, but we know no more about how God works than Augustine. And maybe we have allowed all the knowledge and lack of understanding to keep us from slowing down long enough to really consider it all; to really consider him who made it all.

Link to book.
Link to online version.