For some reason, I awakened on Christmas morning in 2023, inexplicably with praise to God and a completely unexpected sense of joy based on nothing other than His attributes and perhaps the refreshment of rest. In my moment of praise, I began considering God’s power and, because my thinking is often peculiar, I started reflecting on the fact that He is the source of all energy [and collaterally and very oddly started wondering if He is the E in the equation E=MC2, and I quickly concluded that He is substantially more than that as the source of E, and I wondered how He could create the universe without energy yet being in existence, because energy could not exist as we know it in the absence of space—which, again, did not exist until He spoke the universe into existence; and I concluded that God must have created E with something other than E—perhaps just His Thought or His Word, which means that His Word is more powerful than all E that we know, because all E that we know came from His Word—which is amazing]. And I considered that the angels probably never contemplated and perhaps could not comprehend the immensity of the power of God until He created the universe, because before God created the universe, the angels could have experienced only a spiritual world—one without the fundamental elements of our physical existence: space, matter, time and energy. And when God spoke the universe into existence, for the first time, the angels were able to witness the magnitude of His power. Thus, the universe became a marvelous expression of His power.
And I was thinking that the angels may indeed have seen themselves and even God physically for the first time at the creation, because space, matter, time and energy thereupon became evident. Imagine what it must have been like for the angels to have suddenly witnessed the shocking, visible, luminous presence of God for the first time—as time, space, matter and energy endeavored in its own way to define Him. Of course, the angels probably saw even their own luminescence from having been in the presence of God. This idea made me think about the passage in Job, where God was discussing with Job the creation event: “Where were you when I established the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? What supports its foundations? Or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7 HCSB) (emphasis added). Don’t you find it immensely interesting that God tells Job that the angels shouted for joy at the creation event. We might perhaps think, before that point when time started, that it would have been difficult to surprise an angel. Yet, at the point of creation, the angels were incited by what they witnessed to shout for joy.
Then, I kept reading the Job passage and saw this amazing question from God to Job: “Where is the road to the home of light?” (Job 38:19 HCSB). What a fantastic question (and coincidentally related to my preceding thinking about the speed of light being a factor of E). The question implies that all light has a home … a place of origination, and it also implies that there is a path to that place and that we could perhaps find it.
And I was thinking that because God is the source of all energy, He is obviously therefore the source of all light, which makes God’s question even more interesting, because He’s essentially asking Job if he knows how to find the way to God—the home of light. And we know the answer to the question, because Jesus told us: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6 HCSB). Thus, another way of thinking about salvation is to consider that Jesus is the way for us to get to the home of light. Confirming this thought is the additional amazing statement of Jesus: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows Me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12 HCSB).
And I considered further that just like the universe is an expression of the magnitude of God’s power, and just like light is an expression of energy, Jesus is the expression of the magnitude of the love of God. And just as the angels shouted for joy at creation, they were perhaps thoughtful and quiet when they witnessed the prophecies of the suffering of Christ and His subsequent glory, because the Apostle Peter tells us that the “[a]ngels desire to look into these things.” (1 Peter 1:12 HCSB). The angels are as intrigued as we are that God would create humans as beings, subordinate to even the angels, and with choice—knowing that we would very often make the wrong choices and knowing what He would do through Jesus to reconcile us—the subordinate beings who very often make wrong choices—to Himself. And we know too in this regard, speaking of joy, that the angel of the Lord told the shepherds at the announcement of the birth of Jesus, “I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people ….” (Luke 2:10 HCSB). And Jude tells us why it was such good news that was a source of joy: because Jesus enables those of us who accept Him to stand in the presence of God … blameless … with great joy. (Jude 24-25 HCSB).
Although my Christmas epiphany thoughts were something of a stream of consciousness form of thinking, I think I can safely conclude from the thoughts that we share with angels the joy and wonder of the magnitude of the power and love of God—uniquely emphasized for us at Christmas time when we were given the gift of Jesus.
