The attributes of God

Mere human creatures will never fully comprehend Almighty God. Whatever we think we know of Him is never enough. He is always more than we can imagine.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9

God is Perfect Love. Love never desires to remain self-contained, but always seeks another on which to lavish that devotion.

God created us because He wanted to share His love. He desires our love in return, but He knew that we could not love what we do not know. Although God is a Spirit, one of the reasons Jesus came to earth was to show us a human face of God.

Through His human mother, Mary, Jesus took on a human body, and gave us a focus, an image, one like ourselves to whom to direct our prayers and devotion.

Although there is only one God, there are three Divine Persons in God: the Father, the Son who is Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. This is the Trinity, another of the mysteries we will never be able to understand in this life.

The attributes of God, some of which are listed below, are also mysteries. We are familiar with a human concepts of these qualities but as in all things related to the Divine, whatever we can imagine, God is more...

* God is transcendent. He is above creation and exists completely apart from it.

* God is eternal. He always was, always will be, and always remains the same.

* God is all-holy. There is no darkness, no evil, no imperfection in God. To this perfect Being, His Creatures owe adoration and praise.

* God is all-present. God is everywhere. It is impossible to hide from God.

* God knows all things. He is outside of time. The past, present and future do not exist for God. He is always in the present.

* God is all-powerful. He created everything there is and keeps it in existence. If God forgot about anyone for one second, that person would cease to exist.

* God possesses the fullness of every virtue. He is all-wise, all-truthful, all- loving, all-merciful, all-just, and all-faithful.

Sometimes these virtues may seem to conflict. It has been asked: "How can an all-loving God send some of His children to hell?"

In truth, God sends no one to hell. Those who end up there have willingly chosen evil rather than good during their lives on earth. Because God is all-just, they must suffer the consequences of their bad choices.

Meditating on the attributes of God could occupy an entire lifetime and we, as imperfect human beings, still could not even approach an understanding of the Being we refer to as God.

It may be wiser to relax in the warmth of His love and in the assurance of His care and protection and obey the admonition given Psalm 46, verse 10:

"Be still, and know that I am God!"