Incomparable

A friend recently gave me a copy of Andrew Wilson’s fine book Incomparable, by all accounts a modern day equivalent of J I Packer’s Knowing God. Wilson’s book is a concise, snappy, whimsical, high-calibre study of the character of God and even in the opening chapters there are some nuggets that landed in my heart that catalysed a bubbling up of faith. Here are just two to whet the appetite:

1) Talking of creation and created beings, Wilson makes the point that we should refer to ‘creatures’ rather that ‘nature’ – the former having finger-prints of a Person the other a nebulous notion of an ethereal force or power, such as ‘mother nature’. It may sound a semantic splitting of hairs but knowing that God has created, being reminded of that glaringly obvious fact, is a huge encouragement in times of discouragement.

2) Also as an encouragement to His immanent, faithful nearness, Wilson’s following chapter on God’s craftsmanship then underlines the point that we have indeed been fearfully and wonderfully made, created and crafted. If we consider the infinite sprawling spectacle of the cosmic galaxies, and the staggering craftsmanship involved in that, the ‘how much more’ of His craftsmanship of human beings, made uniquely and distinctly in His image, should assure us of His love and, crucially, cause us to love and value others more than, perhaps, we do currently.

Worth a read (or a listen via audio-book) this Christmas!