We praise him for what we could not do ourselves; we thank him for a work that we have only a dim perception of, but which we are utterly dependent on. We have learnt more about how God works and can explain some of the physics by which the clouds form. We can make more accurate weather forecasts, but how could we take on the work of managing the world’s water cycles and oversee the process in all places and with the aim of bringing water to each place that requires it. The atheist answers, these processes do not need to be managed; they proceed on their own undirected. But the God who sent or withheld rain in answer to the prayer of Elijah and who still supplies the nations with little or plenty tells us otherwise. The processes which the atheist imagines come from an autonomous world, are, according to Scripture, nothing other than a description of how God generally works. He works through what we call the regular laws of nature, but they do not bind him; they are simply our way of describing the way he chooses to govern his creation. Without him, these essential processes would cease. How many things he accomplishes at the same time, for he not only waters the earth but he does so in a way that deeply moves the human observer by its beauty. The clouds carry water but they teach lessons also about the power of God to work on such a great scale and about how much higher is the work of God than the work of man.
In relating to God, we relate to a being who is greater than we can possibly comprehend, but who nevertheless exists and whose acts profoundly affect us. Most of what God does is hidden from us and we only know the few things he reveals about himself since we cannot observe him directly. We are said not to know him in the sense that we do not know him comprehensively, indeed, ‘now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known’ (1 Corinthians 13:12). How do we conduct ourselves in this asymmetric relationship? We can only relate to him by faith, which acts as a bulkhead against suspicion that would otherwise flood in. Faith or suspicion: one of these two is bound to fill the vacuum, or else there will be no relationship at all. We will remain uncomfortable in this relationship until we can trust him completely, and God will never give us any true grounds to distrust him though he may test our trust. We know the number of his years, for we are able to say the word, he is eternal, but when we have said this, what have we understood and what truth has occupied our limited minds?