“Since I have begun, let me speak further to my Lord even though I am but dust and ashes.”
This verse perfectly encapsulates the notion of “the numinous” that C.S. Lewis writes about in The Problem of Pain. He got the term from a German theologian, Rudolf Otto who wrote immediately after World War I. Otto and Lewis’ focus on the term was to help us realize the vastness and scope of God. Karl Barth, writing in the same time as Otto, describes this idea as God being the “wholly other.” Abraham, in a discussion with God in Genesis 18, acknowledges the other side of the coin in the above statement. If God is wholly other, the Creator, then humans are merely creatures, the created. As the created, the creature has no right to speak so directly to the Creator…and yet God desires that relationship with us. So, our approach to God is one of humility, one of acknowledgment like Abraham that I am but dust and ashes…and yet in trembling, shuddering humility, I still speak to the Father.
As Christmas is a celebration that God came near in Emmanuel, as we start the New Year, it is equally important to keep the numinous aspect of God clear in our mind. Many wish for God to do something in our world, or at least for them personally. Yet, the approach to God is one of arrogance, of impatience. Instead, approach God like Abraham…aware of the vast distance between us and Him, and yet of the never ceasing need of His movement in our lives.