Denali National Park and Preserve

Larger Than It Looks

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

--Psalm 145:3

There are many ways to describe how impressive the mountain is. Most people use elevation.

Mount Rainier: 14,410 feet.

Longs Peak: 14,259 feet.

Mauna Kea: 13,803 feet.

Then there’s Denali.

The namesake peak of Denali National Park and Preserve stands at a staggering 20,310 feet, making it the tallest mountain in North America—more than 2,000 feet higher than its closest American competitor. Height, however, only tells part of the story.

You can also measure a mountain by prominence, vertical relief, or how dramatically it rises from the land around it. And no matter what measure you use, Denali is enormous. Its base sits around 2,000 feet above sea level, which means the mountain rises more than three and a half vertical miles to its summit.

Or you can just tell people it makes its own weather.

Some things like that, better understood without all the numbers. They’re so vast they stretch your imagination.

Such is the greatness of God.

The Psalmist calls it unsearchable. He doesn’t mean God can’t be known. He means that there will always be more to see. More to know. More to understand. You cannot plumb the depths of God’s greatness. They are unsearchable.

Inexhaustible.

God has made Himself known. He has spoken through creation, he has spoken through Scripture, and He has revealed Himself most clearly in Jesus Christ. We can truly know Him. We can understand His Word and His works.

What we can’t do is fit His greatness into our categories and then congratulate ourselves for understanding Him completely. That is the kind of faith that tries to make God manageable.

Denali pushes against that.

It reminds us that some realities should make us feel small, but in the best possible way. Not worthless. Not forgotten. Still big enough to worship. Still big enough to listen. Still big enough to stop pretending we are the measure of all things.

The greatness of God is more than we can fathom, and worthy of a lifetime spent trying.

Reflection: Where have you been trying to make God more manageable instead of worshiping Him as He is?

Prayer: Lord, enlarge my view of You. Teach me to know You truly without pretending I can know You exhaustively. Let Your greatness lead me to humility, worship, and trust. Amen.