In his book, “God in the Wasteland,” David Wells coins an interesting phrase describing a current condition in society with reference to the importance of God. He calls this condition “the weightlessness of God.” This is what he says, “It is one of the defining marks of Our Time that God is now weightless. I do not mean by this that he is ethereal but rather that he has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life. Those who assure the pollsters of their belief in God’s existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television, his commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence, his judgment no more awe-inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertisers’ sweet fog of flattery and lies. That is weightlessness.”
Commenting on this phrase, Philip Ryken says, “We have become children of a lightweight God.” Reading this about the “weight” of God reminded me of my Hebrew vocabulary. The word for “glory” comes from the same root as the word for “heavy.” Sometimes, the word appears to refer to something that’s physically heavy (Eli the priest in 1 Samuel 4:18), and sometimes, it was used to refer to someone who was “heavy” with material possessions. Genesis 13:2 says, “Abram had become very wealthy (actually “heavy”) in livestock and in silver and gold.” But primarily, the word referred to those who deserved honor and was used for warriors, princes, merchants, priests, and, of course, kings. In our vernacular today, we might call such people “heavyweights.”
The true “heavyweight” should be God. To glorify God is to recognize His grandeur, his majesty, His Omniscience, His Omnipotence, and His Omnipresence. Ryken goes on to say “The Creator God is so heavy that he has left his imprint on the universe like a work boot in wet cement.” When we read the Psalms, we get a glimpse of the “heaviness” of God. Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Psalm 57:11 says, “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.” God is the true heavyweight in all ways and deserves glory and honor. Making God “heavy” makes all the struggles in life light. Jesus calls those who are carrying “heavy burdens” to come to Him in Matthew 11:28-30. He promises to give us rest for our souls because his burden is not heaven; it’s light!