The Divine is in the Details
I recently took a trip out of state and when I arrived at the location, I unpacked my bags and found a surprise. My wonderful wife, Abbie, left me a note of encouragement, prayer, support, and love. It was hidden in my bag so that when I opened a certain compartment I would find it.
I felt so uplifted, loved, and blessed by this small yet personal attention to detail. It reminded me of a Walt Disney quote that I came across in which he said, “There is no magic in magic, it’s all in the details.” If you’ve ever been to Disneyland, you know this is true as there are so many small details like hidden Mickey ears, decor on rides, and the extra little things that you’ll find at restaurants, with characters, or just around the park. All of these details add to the most magical place on earth.
I have slowly but surely been learning this truth in my life as I see the magic of my son discovering new details about life, as my family and community have been experiencing growth through various opportunities, and as I have personally slowed to pay attention to the subtleties of sunset color palettes and nature’s melodies.
In all these things, I have been awestruck by the manifestations of a Creator who is wonderfully imaginative with supreme creativity and ideation. I have also encountered the gloriously meticulous and careful attention to detail that our Lord has given and continues to compassionately provide to all of God’s Creation.
In all of this, I have been challenged on two fronts:
First, I am more naturally inclined to look at the big picture. I’m a creative and ideator who casts a large vision. I’m not as interested in the details at first and I often have the need to surround myself with detail-oriented folks.
Secondly, I grew up hearing a common phrase both in school and youth group at church. That mantra was, “The devil is in the details.” Unfortunately, this phrase was never explained to me so I ended up thinking the enemy was in meticulous pieces to the puzzle of our lives — which is probably why I ended up so determined to fixate on the big picture (and do not enjoy doing puzzles larger than 9 pieces).
Interestingly, as I looked into the origin of this phrase I’ve found some challenge, but more so an invitation to dig into the details with the Lord more. When people say the devil is in the details they are referring to an outlook that suggests that although something may appear simple, there may also be problems with the details that lead to complications and difficulties. This phrase was coined from the original phrase which stated “God (the Divine) is in the details”. It was used to imply that details are important and attention to detail is vital.
Knowing these things about the origin of this phrase I’ve encountered the larger truth of what the details in our lives can point to. There is more awareness of the details and intricacies of the Creator. There is more of a value that I place not just on the big picture, but the building blocks necessary to create such a mosaic. There is more acknowledgment of the difficulties in certain actions and relationships, as well as more of a hopefulness anchored in the assurance that God is also present in those places, things, and people too. There is a balance in recognizing the reality that there is spiritual warfare from a small devil, but there is a greater truth that we worship a Bigger God.
All in all, I’ve been learning the meaning of the significance of the details, and I’ll let you know it’s not the “magic” and it is most definitely not the devil, it is the Divine. I hope to share some ways in which I’ve been on this journey and my hope is that it will be a blessing to you as well.
Scripture
For many Christians, they would assert that they should daily be in the Word of God. Many Christians would also say that their time in the Scriptures isn’t long enough or that they don’t understand the details of the Bible. Other Christians would state they daily read God’s Word, but their intake of other resources (news, politics, social media, entertainment, etc.) is vastly overwhelming compared to their time in the Word. While still others just don’t pick up their Bibles at all.
No matter what our relationship with Scripture is God’s Word is more accessible than we might know and the details found in the Bible lead us to life. Paul described the Scriptures this way: “The Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:15-17).” Paul is reminding Timothy of how the Word of God has been given to lead us to salvation in Christ, fill us with the breath of God, and lead us into the goodness that God created us to experience and express.
The only issue at hand is that we tend to read our own details into the Bible a lot more than reading the details of the Bible, and more importantly, allowing the Word to read us. An example of this is found in Luke 24 after Jesus has been raised from the dead. He encounters two disciples on a road and asks what they are talking about. Because they didn’t recognize Jesus, they told Him all about the One that they thought was the Messiah but who had recently died. Jesus then goes on to explain the Messiah (Himself) to them through the Scriptures and reveals the Messiah to them through breaking bread (communion) with them.
In other words, Jesus shows them the details of the Scriptures both in His teaching and His presence. This encounter with the Resurrected King led to these disciples understanding the Messiah and committing their lives once again to following His way of life. Ultimately, as the Scriptural details were made known to them, they replaced their lenses (details) with a new lens in and from Christ Jesus.
As followers of Jesus, we must come to the Scriptures with the lens of Jesus and allow the details of His story, birth, life, teachings, miracles, death, resurrection, ascension, and promise to return to be the building blocks for our lives. In fact, I would argue who claim that they don’t understand certain details in Scripture do not have revelation because they are looking through the wrong lens (details). I would even say that the Scriptures have become boring, politicized, or disregarded, simply because the Divine details have been missed.
With that said, something I’ve been experiencing is recognizing how the Divine is in the details of Scripture. The lens of how the Word of God is a story about God’s unrelenting love for all of creation and how the whole story is fulfilled in Jesus has brought me life. The details of God’s glorious design, redemptive nature, and gracious invitation have lept from the pages and empowered my life. The sweetness of the words of lament, praise, faithfulness, and hope have guided me in many seasons of the soul. The original meaning of words, phrases, and historical context have added so much more depth and significance.
In other words, the details of God’s Word have called me away from reading my details into the Word and ultimately, taught, rebuked, corrected, and equipped me for a life that is truly life. I’m not saying I know every detail of Scripture and I’m not saying that I understand every meaning, word, and historical context. I am saying that when I simply come to God’s Word and look at the details of the Word through the lens of Jesus, I am reminded of a truth that grounds me, empowers me, and embarks with me in the many things in my life. Henri Nouwen wrote it this way:
"True theology creates the inner space in which God’s word can happen to us. The purpose of theological understanding is not to grasp, control, or even use God’s word, but to become increasingly willing to let the word of God speak to us, guide us, move us, and lead us to places beyond our own comprehension. Thus theology is prayer." - Henri Nouwen - "Theology as Doxology"
With that said, I want to encourage you to a few ways in which you can discover the Divine in the details of the Scriptures.
Read the Bible: Make time to read and listen to the Scriptures. Do this personally. Do this in a community. Don’t just read it, but allow God’s Word to read you. Don’t just listen, but put it into practice.
Dig in Deeper: There is nothing wrong with just reading the Bible (please do that as often as possible). There is simply an invitation to dig deeper, to look within, behind, and around the text, and to discover more of the Lord. There are resources all around that can be used and I would recommend the following:
The Bible Project - helpful videos and articles about the context, authorship, and interconnectedness of the Scriptures and Scriptural narrative
thebible.org - Bible reading tool for parallel translations including original languages, concordances, and word studies
biblegateway.com - Bible reading tool with parallel translations and commentaries
Commentaries -
Word Biblical Commentaries
New Beacon Bible Commentaries
Asbury Bible Commentaries (on Bible Gateway)
Slow Down: Speed reading might be helpful during finals week or when we are behind on emails, but we will see more details in the Scriptures when we read slowly. You will read more when you read fast, but you will read more when you slow down. The excuse that we don’t have enough time to read the Bible or to add more time to our schedules to read the Bible is absolutely ridiculous. We fill our calendars with empty practices, and we can sacrifice meaningless time on social media for the richness of communing with God in His Word and discovering the Divine in the details of the Scriptures.
Creation
In the beginning, we see that God speaks to us about Himself and the story of God through the creation of all things by His Word. Through Exodus, He guides His people and gives them messages using parts of creation like the wilderness, rocks, water, clouds, and fire. When Job and his buddies question God’s role in Job’s deep grief, God responds by speaking to Job about God’s creation. As Jesus atoned for sin through His death on the cross and overcame the grave through His resurrection, He did so not simply for humanity, but for all of creation.
In other words, God reveals who He is through the details of His creation. David wrote it this way in Psalm 8:1-4, “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. 2 Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. 3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”
In fact, all throughout the Psalms, there are worshipful proclamations written about God’s creation and God’s nature being revealed to us through the divinely inspired details of the world.
All of this to say, it seems that it is most befitting for us to acknowledge the Divine in the details of the creation that was made by the Divine.
The original Artist is the One who sculpted humanity in His own image and we bear the likeness of our Creator. The Poet wrote out heavenly rhymes on the earth’s landscapes and we can feel the resounding creativity all around. The Master Musician sang melodies and harmonies into waves crashing, bees buzzing, and winds blowing, and we can still hear the sound of the Divine in the details of our lives.
The question is not whether or not God speaks to us through creation, it’s whether or not we are looking and listening. Are we taking in the unbelievable color of orange that only happens when the blues, purples, pinks, and horizons meet as the sun sets? Are we looking at the mountainscapes, rolling hills, and flatlands with eyes that recognize the creative genius of God’s loving care for all created things? Are we seeing the cycle of life-giving webs of organisms that reveal the interconnectedness of all living things and the call for us to see the Original Source who made it all?
Beloved, our God is the Creator of life itself. He formed us and all living things for, from, and in love. The creation around us shows the intricately beautiful details of God’s nature and the invitation for all to receive the redemptive power of Christ’s grace and truth. Paul wrote it this way: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen (Rom. 1:20).”
Now, hear me out on this. This is not a call to worship creation, but to look for the Divine in the details of creation. As we look for God’s power and nature revealed in nature, we must also recognize that God is not creation. God is the Creator, we are the created. There is a massive distinction between the One who creates and those or that which is created. But as we see the creation, our hope is that our eyes might rest upon different sceneries, animals, and locations, but our hearts and minds would be illuminated by the One who formed what we see and experience. Ultimately, when we look at the creation, we are reminded of the Creator.
C.S. Lewis wrote it this way, “We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labor is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake.”
In a world that is alive because of the Creator, our goal is to remain awake as we are stirred by the Divine details in creation. It is to stop our daily rushing and fill our lives with moments of prayer, worship, silence, and awe as we discover the things in our world that remind us of our Creator. It is to allow our vision of God to inspire us to look for God’s fingerprints in creation. It is also to allow the fingerprints of God’s creation to inspire us with a greater vision of God.
Thomas Kinkade wrote it this way, “Whether it's a pebble in a riverbed or a soaring mountain peak, I see everything in the world as the handiwork of the Lord. When I paint, I try to represent the beauty of God's creation in my art. Many modern painters see the world as a jumble of random lines and shapes with no divine beauty or order, and their works reflect their viewpoint. Because I see God's peacefulness, serenity, and contentment, I work to capture those feelings on the canvas. My vision of God defines my vision of the world.”
But, we will never see these details if we are moving too quickly, burying our faces in our phones, or looking upon the details of creation with objectification and using what is before us only for us. Here are some things I’d encourage you to slow down to notice or to shift in your daily lives:
Look at the Details: Whether it be regularly watching the sunrise or sunset, or looking at the intricate details of birds or ants, look upon the creation with attention to the Divinely inspired details. The fact is that there are daily invitations for us to slow down and recognize how God is speaking to us and sometimes this happens through us looking at the details of creation. This can be through the beauty of God’s color palette in the northern lights, the simplicity of the wind blowing through the grass, or the sophisticated systems that constantly operate to keep life moving forward. Look, watch, and delight in the details of the Creator and His creation.
Listen to the Details: Because many of us live in populous areas of the world, our lives are filled with the sounds of cars, consumerism, technology, and the neverending music of phones and media. Our ears are constantly bombarded by a number of things around us, while the song of creation is humming a Divinely created melody. The sounds of children laughing, birds chirping, wind rustling trees, snow falling quietly, and waves crashing loudly all echo the Creator’s attention to detail and unique care for all of creation. Slowing down to listen can lead us to recognize how loudly God has been talking to us and how much we have been listening to other things. Listen and enjoy the harmonies of creation that resound with the melody of the Songwriter.
Pray the Details: It’s one thing to look at and listen to the details around us, and it’s another to turn them into ways that we pray. Watching the sunrise in the morning and set in the evening reminds us of God’s faithfulness and calls us to pray with gratitude and acknowledgment of God’s Presence in things we can’t control. Listening to the waters flowing in a river helps us to remember that God’s Presence is like living waters and invites us to pray for that same trickling or sometimes rushing river to flow from our lives. Look, listen, and then pray, allowing the Divine in the details to stir you awake with reminders of God’s nature and invitation each day.
Relationships
You may have noticed a theme by now: we will discover the Divine in the details when we slow down. Having a toddler in my house has simultaneously caused me to speed up (mainly to ensure his survival) and to slow down (mainly because I’m tired). Joking aside, my slowing down has been because, at certain stages, my son was only able to do certain things. In the newborn stage, holding my boy was the norm. Within months, he began to bounce, roll, and then crawl. Crawling turned to walking, walking to running, running to climbing, and jumping on anything in his sight. At each stage, I’ve slowed down to take it all in because I’m completely enamored with my son and I’ve discovered the Divine design in his growth and simply, in him.
In this same way, relationships are a way in which we encounter Jesus in the details of our lives. Unfortunately, we may miss these details because of pain, rushing, or not seeing how the many intricacies of our relationships lead to a beautiful mosaic of God’s goodness and grace. Whether it be from life stages, growing pains, fights and divisions, or simply the weariness of trying to keep up with everybody we know, the more we can pay attention to the details of our relationships the more we will discover the Lord loving us, leading us, and inviting us into right relationships with Him and others.
I wish that all of our relationships could help us to see the Divine details of a loving Father like what I’ve learned from holding my son, parenting him, and pouring into his life each day. There are so many beautiful moments such as these that we can learn from a plethora of other relationships as well. However, the truth is that we often find ourselves hit with the incredibly difficult details from relationships that leave us with pain, trauma, and more questions than answers. The goodness of God is that He meets us in the slowness of baby naps and the difficulty of harmful patterns in family and friendships. The grace of God is that we are not alone and that the invitation to learn, grow, and commune with God is just as available in the sweet as it is in the salty. The love of God is an ever-present power that rests upon, surrounds, and fills us with the strength to stay present, engage with hardships, and do the impossible things like forgive and bless others who have done the opposite to us.
In short, God reveals in the good, bad, and ugly details of our relationships that He is always with us, that His truth is consistently available and able to set free, that His grace is more than sufficient for us and all, and that His cross and resurrection truly do impact every area of our lives.
The Divine details in our relational connection with one another remind us that our lives are not divided into compartments in which we have boxed and placed on a shelf. For many, their spiritual lives are completely separated from their work lives and even their family lives and friendships. But the Lord reveals to us that when we are willing to allow Him to break our boxes, the details that we once tried to keep separate were always being painted by God’s grace and woven by God’s love to create a piece of artwork we never thought imaginable. God’s just that good and He reveals this through the details of our relationships with others.
In fact, this is what Paul writes about in Ephesians stating, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:8-10).” Please notice that because of God’s gift of grace to us, there is a new creation in Christ Jesus that God makes. That “handiwork” is the Greek word ποίημα which means masterpiece, workmanship, or creation. It is where we get the word “poem” from and it’s the way that we are described as new creations in Christ Jesus.
Think about this for a moment: God made all people in His image. We all bear the image of God in us in a perfect relationship with God. Then, in sin, we break this relationship with God and others. But God in His goodness and grace comes as a human being named Christ Jesus who takes that sin, overcomes it, and makes a way to not only restore us to right relationship with God and others but to recreate us as the original image bearers we were made to be.
God’s image and redemptive artwork are on display in each one of us. The glorious invitation with each person is recognizing the masterpiece that is before us who is revealing God to us with the details of their lives. This is easy to see when relationships are in a good place and when I’m slowly rocking my son to sleep. But this is incredibly difficult to look for when relationships are rocky and we don’t want anything to do with one another. Yet, God invites us to pay attention to the details of each other’s lives as a way to better understand His goodness, His mercy, His grace, and His love. He calls us to postures that don’t make sense, but when we enter into such actions we look at the details of our relational lives and are awakened to a mighty sense of God’s ability to make all things good.
This may all sound relatable, yet interestingly, we live in a time in which our labels for others are anchored in not seeing the Divine, but the devil in the details. We name-call others who think, vote, speak, and act differently. We hold grudges and wallow in unforgiveness towards those who have harmed us. We allow the lies of the enemy to take root in our hearts and minds so much that our ideas of others and actions toward them are more in alignment with hell than heaven.
But in the midst of all of this, our Good God is inviting us to pay attention to the details of our lives and relationships. Not to pick up more ammunition to aim at others. Not to create a wider divide. Not to falsely accuse others or belittle them either. Rather, the Spirit of God invites us to look at how His grace covers all of these details and how He’s at work doing radically Kingdom things in all people. The Lord is showing us that He has forgiven others, just like He’s forgiven us. He’s manifesting the truth that He loves others just as much as He loves us. He’s reminding us that we are not God and that He alone is.
In all these things, we see that God is in the details of our relationships and is always inviting us to view things in light of His mercy, act in accordance with His love, and know that He’s always been, is, and will always be good.
In the play, Les Miserables, there is a line in the final song in which the characters together sing, “To love another person is to see the face of God.” The idea is that God is truly present and we also have many things that obscure our vision. These things may be material possessions or relational difficulties and divisions. However, when we reorient our lives to love others we find that God is present and we discover the Divine in the details of the relationships in our lives.
Interestingly, these sentiments are anchored deeply in Scripture. When Jacob and Esau meet together after years of estrangement and Jacob’s deception and betrayal, Esau greets Jacob mercifully. Jacob then responds, “For to see your face is like seeing the face of God… (Gen. 33:10).” When Jesus calls His disciples to serve the least among them, He tells them whatever they do unto those brothers and sisters, they do unto Him (Mt. 25:31-46). In our forgiveness, we can encounter the face of God in the details of reconciling with one another. In our serving. we can and will experience the presence of Jesus as we participate in the details of loving others.
In short, the Divine is in the details of our relationships and is inviting us to encounter God’s goodness in every relational connection we have. Here are some things we can do to see these details and receive and give God’s love in these relationships.
Ask God How He Sees Others: Far too many of us treat others based off of our perspectives. Whether this leads to treating certain people better or certain people worse, we are acting from an incomplete and limited viewpoint. What we must return to, time and again, is asking God how He sees other people. His ways are higher and His thoughts are better than ours (Is. 55:8-9). He knows all things and is always at work to loving make things good. We can trust that how He sees and what He says about another person will lead us better than simply what we see and say. I will also say that when we look at the details of our lives and bring them before the Lord in prayer, He is able to put together all the puzzle pieces that don’t make sense to us at the moment. Beloved, ask God about what He thinks about others. You’ll see His goodness in the relational details before you.
Forgive: We will never be able to see the Divine in the details when our vision is constantly fixated on others through the lens of unforgiveness, bitterness, grudges, and pain. The good news given to all is the offer of forgiveness. We worship the God who forgives every sin (Psalm 103) and has the authority to do so (Mt. 9:1-8). He also calls us to forgive others (Mt. 6:14-15) and to forgive from the heart (Mt. 18:35). Unforgiveness hinders us from the true perspective of God and others. It holds us in a prison of only seeing the devil in the details and missing the opportunity to live free and connected relationally. Be bold and forgive. I believe it will lead to seeing God at work in the details of your relationships.
Love - God is love and God gives love. God not only gifts us with this love but also calls us to extend this love to others (1 John 3-4). This love is patient and kind and seeks the good for others regardless of the personal cost or regardless of our viewpoint of others. This love welcomes us to presently delight and enjoy others, as well as act in accordance with the future promise of God’s love overcoming all things. Love opens our eyes to another way when it seems like there is no way. Love shows us that the Divine is in the details and that God’s love has, is, and will always hold all things together. Choosing a posture of love, although difficult, is one in which we consistently come back to the foundation of receiving and expressing this agape gift to the world around us. In doing so, we become more aware of the Lord’s love in the details of our relationships and world.
Beloved, the Divine is in the details. God is always present and always inviting us to discover, encounter, and express His love and grace. There are love notes that God leaves for us all around. In the Scriptures, in creation, and in our relationships, God is consistently showing us Himself through the small and large details. He is constantly inviting us to see through His lens and become more aware of His Presence and creativity. Max Lucado said it this way, “We (Christians) are always in the presence of God. There is never a non-sacred moment! His presence never diminishes. Our awareness of His presence may falter, but the reality of His presence never changes.”
As you live each day becoming more aware of the Divine in the details of your life, slow down to look, listen, and learn from the Lord. Let His Word read you. Let the sunset colors remind you. Let the creatures chirping call you to harmonize. Let the Spirit of God lead you into right relationships with God and others. Let all the little details help you to see that God is painting a beautiful piece of artwork, and it is not so much a painting as much as it is a mosaic. The details are invitations for you to see, to worship, to lament, to sing, to forgive, to listen, and to live as part of God’s Masterpiece.
Henri Nouwen wrote about this saying, “A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.”
Enjoy the details, friends. The closer we look the more we will discover the incredible details of our Artist. And the more we step back to admire the mosaic, the more we will recognize the beauty of God’s Artwork and the Divine in the details of our lives. Amen.
