'The Bible is not afraid of speaking of God in a startlingly tender and human sort of way. It does so just in passages where the majesty of God is set forth. “It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,” says the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, “and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers” (Isa 40:22). “All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness” (Isa 40:17). But what says that same fortieth chapter of Isaiah about this same terrible God? Here is what it says: “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young” (Isa 40:11).
How wonderfully the Bible sets forth the tenderness of God! Is that merely figurative? Are we wrong in thinking of God in such childlike fashion? Many philosophers say so. They will not think of God as a person. Oh, no. That would be dragging him down too much to our level! So they make of him a pale abstraction. The Bible seems childish to them in the warm, personal way in which it speaks of God.
Are these philosophers right or is the Bible right? Thank God, the Bible is right, my friends. The philosophers despise children who think of God as their heavenly Father. But the philosophers are wrong and the children are right. Did not our Lord Jesus say: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children” (Matt 11:25).
No, God is no pale abstraction. He is a person. That simple truth—precious possession of simple souls—is more profound than all the philosophies of all the ages.'
(from The Person of Jesus, by J. Gresham Machen, pp. 9-10)
