We begin chapter three of Mark McIntosh’s book, Mysteries of Faith, with a challenging statement: “What would you think if I told you that Christians believe God does not exist?” I was a bit startled at McIntosh’s statement for a few reasons: I suppose it’s startling to me when someone speaks for all Christianity, and to speak with such certainty about a subject that is large, complex, and mysterious…God’s creation, is a bit surprising. McIntosh goes on to develop his statement by saying that if God “existed” as other concrete realities “exist” in the world, that would imply that God was created as well. And God was not and never has been “created;” God is the eternal source of all created things. He also develops more nuanced understandings of God’s being throughout the chapter, with thoughts like, “a crucial difference between the Creator and all creatures is essence and existence: for while essence and existence are two quite different things for creatures, the very essence of God is to exist – not as something, but as the sheer loving act of existing itself.” And so, the mystery of creation is not something we might unwrap and understand in a single sentence.