For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. (Isa 55:8)

As friars, we have the opportunity to share in the struggles of many people whom we meet. These words above of the prophet Isaiah can be a source of consolation for some of these people, but are they enough? When life is difficult and God’s providence seems to have ordered it as such, are we just supposed to say to ourselves, “Deal with it, because God just doesn’t act the way we do”? Is this answer just a cop-out on God’s part? While these words of Isaiah are a life-line for some, it seems others wouldn’t find them very satisfying.

With this in mind, there is a big difference between the way some interpret Isaiah’s words and what he is actually trying to say. The statement  “God’s ways are not our ways,” could be rephrased as “God’s perspective is higher than ours.” Using this phrasing clarifies the passage and gives more solace to those who are struggling. In order to see the implications of this “higher perspective,” we can look to Saint Thomas Aquinas. 

Saint Thomas draws from various medieval authors (especially Saint Boethius) to explain why it is hard for man to comprehend God’s lofty perspective. To illustrate this difference in perspective, St. Thomas uses a simple analogy. Man is likened to someone traveling on a road that is along the side of a hill. He is only able to see what is a little behind him and before him—that is, some of the past and the present. This perspective differs drastically from someone who is standing on top of the hill. In a single glance, he is able to see all of these different perspectives of the traveler. Unlike the traveler, the one on the hill doesn’t have to wait for something down the road to come into his view; everything is already before him as if all of it were the present (ST Ia q. 14 a. 13 ad. 3). In a similar way, God sees all our past, present, and future in a single, all-encompassing glance.

Saint Thomas’s insight transforms the idea that we just have to “deal with” God’s providence  into something more consoling: “God sees and is planning something beyond all of this.” However, every analogy limps; even so, this particular hobble ends up being helpful. God is not living on top of a hill with a far-removed and indifferent perspective on what is happening in the world of man. His higher and eternal perspective doesn’t prevent him from having perfect knowledge of temporal things as well as Fatherly concern for the things we experience (Ps 8:5). After all, God himself came into the world through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. “He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:7-8). Saint Paul reminds us here that God is intimately involved in our lives, even from his elevated state. In this relationship, he both governs the events that unfold on these winding roads, while also walking with us.

This last point clarifies Isaiah’s words above, and it further defends them from a disheartening interpretation. Although God is active in our lives, we can still say that he acts differently than us because, in a way far beyond our capacity, he governs with an attentive and loving concern for our greatest good. This good is ultimately found in God himself. He is concerned about matters from our perspective, but he also looks beyond them because he calls us to join him in his own lofty heights. 

This loftiness is what makes his ways different from ours. Even though his ways are different, we shouldn’t think they are worse. They are infinitely greater and better than our ways because they are the roads that ultimately lead us to himself.

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Image: Photo by LoboStudio Hamburg on Unsplash