Attributes of God--X and Y

***(For the beginning of this series, starting with the letter A, please click here.) ***

As far as I can tell, there are no good English words beginning with the letters X or Y that describe the character or nature of God.

This is not an area where one wants to cheat. So I am not cheating. I am punting, and there is a difference.

For X, I'm just going to be a little bit corny and use "excellent." X is the second letter, and the first sound is undeniably the sound of "x." So that is where I am going to leave it, and I hope you will let me know if there really is a legitimate x word that I should have remembered.

God is EXCELLENT

Psalm 8
(KJV)

O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Y is a surprisingly unusual letter. I actually got out the dictionary and looked through the Y entries, assuming that there must be an appropriate Y word. I came up with nothing. Again, please let me know if there is something I am missing.

In the meantime, the best I can do is this...

God YEARNS to gather people to Himself--Scripture only speaks of us yearning for God, not of Him yearning for us. But Jesus did say:

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing."
Luke 13:34

Longing for something is similar to yearning for it, isn't it? It is comforting to know that God longs to gather even those who are unwilling to come to Him. He says over and over again in Ezekiel, "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked." It is proof of the goodness and lovingkindness of the Lord that He does not rejoice in pouring out His judgment on anyone.

Next up, Z.