Is Your Mind Boggled?

“That boggles my mind!” Many of us have made that exclamation when we were astonished or amazed upon seeing or hearing something incredible. The word “boggle” means to be astounded or overwhelmed. Is your mind boggled?

There are many things that can have this level of impact on our minds, or about which we can be boggled. The vastness and incredible distances of space are utterly “mindboggling.” How can anyone comprehend it? Every time we look up at the stars, we are seeing light that is hundreds and thousands of years old, meaning that the light we see has traveled unfathomable distances!

Or, consider the estimated almost 14 billion years since the universe came into existence. And if almost every hydrogen atom that exists was created near that time, it would mean that every hydrogen atom in our bodies is almost 14 billion years old. No wonder I have been feeling my age lately!

The infinitely small is also mindboggling! At the other end of the size and distance spectrum are things “tiny as tiny can be”! Very tiny particles or forces make up the already tiny atom. It is mindboggling!

The ancient patriarch Job considered in absolute wonderment the mighty works and power of the Creator. Job described the great things God does as “past finding out, yes, wonders without number” (Job 9:10). Job also said, “Who does great things, and unsearchable, marvelous things without number” (Job 5:9).

Truly, anyone who studies nature and various fields of science cannot help but be absolutely amazed by the mindboggling number of mindboggling things that God has made!

King David also was awed at the omnipresence of God and His intense interest in the thoughts and actions of mortal man, and said, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it” (Psalm 139:6). David continued, marveling at the wonders of the creation of the human body as being “fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are your works” (v. 14). Anyone who has taken even a cursory glance at the development of the embryonic human will be more than amazed! The “code” locked away in a very tiny bio-mechanical structure determines what, how, and when complex structures form, and “who” the growing baby will be. It really is mindboggling!

King David knew there was something special about the creation of mankind. In Psalm 8, he wondered, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (vv. 3–4). We tiny humans can feel very insignificant, a mere speck of dust in the vastness of space. And yet, we are made in the very image of the Almighty God. But we humans, populating this one little planet out of billions, have the intense interest of the Creator. Why?

In Psalm 40, David said, “Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts which are toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered” (v. 5).

The why question is answered, in part, in Hebrews, where it quotes Psalm 8:4, mentioned above: “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet” (Hebrews 2:6–8).

It then goes on to explain that our salvation includes becoming brethren of Jesus Christ! (v. 11). Our future is mindboggling! Be sure to read the booklet What Is the Meaning of Life?, available here at the Tomorrow’s World website.