God is infinite, and that's a lot.

I'm still slowly rereading John right now and this morning I got to chapter 20 and read about Jesus appearing to Mary at the tomb. Verse 14 threw me a little bit, though. It says that Mary saw Jesus, but didn't recognize Him.

My first thought was that something about Jesus' resurrection must have changed Him. But that doesn't sit right. There are numerous verses that point to the fact that God never changes; specifically Hebrews 6:17-18. So why couldn't Mary recognize Jesus?

Let's say you've climbed Mt. Everest, all the way to the top. If you decided to do it again and started at the same point, it would still be a hard climb, but it would be familiar and you'd have some clue about what you were going to see. But let's say you went one hundred yards to your left to start. It would be a completely different climb. It's still the same mountain, but there are lots of sides to it.

One thing I'm starting to see is that God isn't just big, He's infinite! There are so many aspects to Him that's there's no way we'll be able to grasp even most of them. So if ever we see a different side of God, it's easy to react by thinking, "Whoa! That's not the Jesus I know." But, just like what happened with Mary, Jesus hadn't changed, He was just revealing more of Himself. If Jesus seems unfamiliar, it might not be a different Jesus, but rather, more of Him. God's character is unchanging, but it's also infinite, so there's a lot there to get to know.