God of Mystery

There is a lot in this world that we both know and at the same time, do not understand. That we cannot understand. In some cases, we can watch it, as through a window, but we still cannot understand what is happening. 

Take, for example, the growth of a plant. We know that we put a seed into the ground, it busts open, it sprouts, it pushes through the soil above it, and it becomes a plant. We can plant the seed in a glass box, even right up against the edge, put a time-lapse camera on it, and watch it. But at the very best, all we can do is describe what we are seeing; we cannot explain how it actually works. 

Yet we can all say - we all must say - that the seed is becoming the plant. 

The same is true with the child in the womb. Our technologies have come a long way, and we even have ultrasound now that can show you in 3-D what your growing baby looks like. We can see the heartbeat. We can watch the features start to form. We can measure the girth and weight of the momma and make assumptions about what that means about the baby in the womb. We have even become able to fertilize eggs in test tubes in laboratories and keep them in incubators. And yet, we can't explain how it actually happens. We can watch it, but we can't explain it. 

Yet we all know that a baby is growing in the womb. 

And we can watch the wind blow. We can see it move the leaves of the trees. We can feel its refreshing breeze against our faces. We can feel it shift from one direction to another. We can track jet streams and cold fronts and warm fronts and weather systems. And yet, not a single one of us has ever gone to the place where the wind starts. We don't know how it happens. We can't explain it. 

Yet, we must say that it is certainly the wind. 

Ecclesiastes tells us this is the relationship that we have with God. What He does in the world is plain - we can see it, just as we can see the plant sprouting, the baby forming, the wind moving - but we cannot explain it. We cannot understand it. 

Our God is both plain and mysterious at the very same time. He is known and unknown. He is knowable, but there are things we can only witness and not explain. Things we can see, but not understand. Things that seem so obvious, but ask us how they are done, and we would only be able to shrug our shoulders. 

Should that trouble us? It should not. 

For we are not troubled by not knowing how the plant grows; it does not keep us from planting seeds. We are not troubled by not knowing how the baby grows; it does not keep us from desiring offspring. We are not troubled by not knowing how the wind blows; it does not keep us from flying a kite.

Therefore, let us not be troubled by not knowing how God does the wondrous things that He does; let it not keep us from trusting in Him.