As I was reading my Bible* the other night I came across something so simple, yet so profound. When God was delivering the Israelites from Egypt it says, “God didn’t lead them by the road through the land of the Philistines, which was the shortest route, for God thought, ‘If the people encounter war, they’ll change their minds and go back to Egypt’.” Above all else, two words stood out to me: God thought.

For some reason, I’ve never thought of God as a “thinking” being. Sure, I know Him as a “knowing” God –omniscient even– but the idea of Him really thinking in the present tense is a concept I haven’t considered before. How does someone who is infinite in knowledge and time have logical, rational thought patterns? I don’t know, but what I do know is that I closed my Bible thinking, “That’s a God I can relate to.”

*The Message translation.