When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth – people getting no sleep day or night – then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 8:16-17)
Some people spend a lifetime trying to figure it all out — why this happens and why that happens and why some other thing happens. Why this? Why now? Why me? Now, there is nothing wrong with thinking seriously about life and trying to make sense of it all. The pursuit of knowledge and understanding is commended in sacred Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. The mind matters to God, and we must use our mind to think and grow and mature in our faith. The Bible knows nothing of anti-intellectualism. In fact, the wise preacher Solomon, who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, tells us that God has put a sense of mystery into our hearts, which drives us to want to know more about life and the One who created it.
And yet, with all that said, there is something we must always remember: There will be much in this life that we simply cannot understand. It is called mystery. No matter how serious we are as we embark on our quest to know, there are some things that we will never know. God is God and we are not. Even before their terrible fall in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve did not have complete knowledge. How much worse is our condition? We are sinners with finite minds, and the image of God in us has been broken and marred by sin.
But here is the grace in all of this; inasmuch as we we will never know the answers to all our questions — in fact, we don’t even know all the questions to ask — we do know the One who created it all and is working everything out according to the counsel of His will. Growing and maturing in the faith is also learning how to live with mystery. No matter how advanced we become technologically, perhaps even arrogantly believing that we will one day be able to solve all the mysteries in the world, mystery is simply part of our lives. And those who are being transformed by the renewing of their minds rest in this biblical truth:
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV)
Our lives are full of surprises, and we will be met with interruptions and the unexpected time and time again. God will not reveal all there is to know, but He will continually reveal all we need to know, and thus we will be able to obey His command to “Love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him” (Deuteronomy 11:22). This is the ministry of mystery.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 