Week 1: Introduction — Becoming What We Behold

1.Wilkin opens with the idea that we are transformed into what we behold and worship. In your own words, what does she mean by that, and why does it matter which version of God (or which false god) we are beholding?

2.She draws a distinction between God's communicable attributes (those he shares with us, like love and mercy) and his incommunicable attributes (those he alone possesses, like omniscience and eternality). Why is it important to keep that distinction clear? What happens in our thinking — and our living — when we blur it?

3.Wilkin locates the origin of humanity's grasping at God's incommunicable attributes in the garden of Eden. How does the serpent's promise in Genesis 3 — 'you will be like God' — connect to the specific attributes she plans to examine in this book?

4.Before reading further, take an honest inventory: which of the ten attributes listed in the table of contents (infinite, incomprehensible, self-existent, self-sufficient, eternal, immutable, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, sovereign) do you most find yourself grasping for? Why do you think that is?

5.Wilkin suggests that knowing what God is not like is just as important for our spiritual formation as knowing what he is like. Do you agree? Has your own spiritual formation ever focused on the incommunicable attributes, or has it mostly stayed with the communicable ones (love, grace, patience)?

6.The introduction sets up the book's central promise: learning to rejoice in our limits rather than chafe against them. What would it practically look like for you to experience your finitude as a gift rather than a frustration this week?

7.How does the person and work of Jesus — the infinite God who took on finite human flesh — already begin to answer the tension the introduction raises? What does the Incarnation say about the value of being a limited creature?