Ancient builders carved two large footprints on the threshold of the Ain Dara Temple in northern Syria. There’s another footprint—a right foot—inside the first chamber of the temple. Then 30 feet farther inside is another footprint—a left foot.

What I found so interesting is the apparent theology that lies behind the footprints. The people needed to worship a god that was larger than they were—more intelligent, more powerful—and they seemed to need confirmation that the god was near, coming to them at the temple. The 30-foot stride indicates a god 65 feet tall. So they worshipped such a god and waited for his help.

But such a god is still quite small. It seems that they might have imagined a god that wasn’t too big to hold firmly in their human thoughts. Perhaps they also did not want a god that was so big that, at least together, they could not control him—sort of like the way the Lilliputians thought they could tie down Gulliver. Even their worship and sacrifices—if they offered them—were intended to bend this god to their will or to bribe him so he would grant good crops and prosperity.

Our human minds can imagine such a god—with a larger than human footprint but not too big that we can’t grasp him with our human brains; control him; or at least influence him with our prayers, offerings, or good behavior. Humans have always made such gods. That’s the limit of our ability to think and conceive of some deity.

Do we find such concepts of god around us today? I don’t think we have to look too far. Some of those ideas might even find a home in the mental temples we build. We want a god we can understand—one who neatly fits into our thinking. We reject him if he does or says things we don’t understand or can’t grasp.

All that simply brings God down to our level—makes his footprint large but not too large. On one level, we can grasp his greatness as we look around at his footprints here on earth—the sunrise, the beauty of the mountains, the seas, the wonderful animals that populate our world, or a host of other things. Paul even says as much, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made” (Romans 1:20).

But that’s only part of the reality. At the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem, Solomon said that God could not be contained by the temple or even the heavens (2 Chronicles 6:18). Isaiah also reminds us that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and that his ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8,9). God is God. We don’t stand in judgment of God. We don’t tell God what to do or tell him who he is.