“There is a God-shaped hole in every one of us.” This is a misquote of the 17th century mathematician Blaise Pascal. It might not be what he originally said, but it’s a simplification that has stuck because it speaks to something we all know – there is a longing, a thirst within us for more.
I believe this hole is actually the chasm that our sin creates between us and God. It is a bottomless pit and a merciless master with an insatiable appetite. In it, we are always hungry, always consuming, in an effort to feed our gaping desire. We feel that we lack something in some way. And although we may play nice or somehow disguise our selfishness, the truth is we are completely self-focused in trying to meet that need. Only it can never be met. Whatever we throw into the pit is never going to be enough.
We don’t always know, recognize, or anticipate our needs. The ancient Romans had tons of gods – one for everything from crops to sewers. Because if you count on an idol to meet your needs, you’ll need to make a new one every time you encounter a new need. None of them had any real power. A limitless God is the only one that can meet our every need.
A God-shaped piece won’t fill the hole any more than any other thing we try to fit into the hole. We need more than a piece of God. We need the fullness of God.
For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ. Colossians 1:19
When we choose the pieces we like of God to try to fill our holes, what we’re really doing is creating an idol. We are fashioning a god with our hands, the same way that a craftsman might choose a piece of wood, some precious gems, a hunk of stone. We put Him together like Mr Potato Head, picking the nose, the eyes, the characteristics we want Him to have. What we end up with isn’t God any more than Mr Potato Head is.
When Jesus was on earth, people tried to put Him into a category, a framework they already knew, a box. But they couldn’t – He defied their expectations. He broke every constraint they tried to put on Him. Every time they said, “You can’t do that,” He showed them that nothing is impossible with God. He willingly confined Himself to a human body, to the Cross, to the grave. But in the end none of those things could contain Him.
God cannot be contained – not by the shape of the hole in our hearts, not by the rules we set for Him, or the box we create for Him. He is as wild and untamed as the ocean.
We must welcome, embrace, receive God in all His fullness. He is too big for the container. I promise that He will break it. But the breaking will be like water decimating the dam that holds it back. What will spill out is life itself, like water spreading across a floodplain. The broken heart is capable of holding far more than the untouched one ever could.
We open our thirsty hearts for a drink and He responds with the entire ocean. In Him we are quenched, drenched, satisfied, content. This is the only way for the chasm to be filled – it must be stuffed, filled to overflowing, bulging at the top, bursting at the seams – with the infinite God.
“But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” John 4:14