As far back as I can remember, I've always loved mysteries. I read the Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys books growing up. The movie "Clue" became one of my favorite, and I still love playing the board game. Trying to figure out who done it piques my interest. I like the challenge of figuring out the mystery. I would suppose that's even part of the reason why I like Sudoku, trying to solve the mystery of what numbers should be in which square.
By and large, we humans like mysteries. Rather, I should say that we like solving mysteries. We don't tend to like loose ends. We want to know why things happen, how things happen, and how to get them to happen. We don't like living in the mystery, we like to see the mystery solved.
I would suggest that some of this thinking is the reason behind many people's reluctance to believe in the matters that the Bible speaks about. Really, there are a lot of mysteries in there that just cannot be solved. How could God create everything simply by speaking it into existence? How can one man's blood pay the price of sin for all people? These are mysteries that God has chosen not to reveal to us, and since we cannot understand them, I believe many look to see if they can find some tangible explanation.
The thing is, there is one rather large mystery that isn't a mystery for us. Jesus's blood, His perfect life, death, and resurrection, have indeed served as God's means of restoring His fallen, sinful creation back to Himself. That's not a mystery. Sure, the mechanism for how He could do such a thing might be a mystery, but as God reveals it, it's not a mystery that God has done this for all people of the world.
We have plenty of mysteries to be solved, and really, I have come to believe that God doesn't answer all our mysteries, simply to remind us that we aren't ones who are God. There are things about Him that we cannot comprehend or understand. And, while the mystery solver in me doesn't really like that, the faith in me says that it's okay that God is God, and I am not.
By and large, we humans like mysteries. Rather, I should say that we like solving mysteries. We don't tend to like loose ends. We want to know why things happen, how things happen, and how to get them to happen. We don't like living in the mystery, we like to see the mystery solved.
I would suggest that some of this thinking is the reason behind many people's reluctance to believe in the matters that the Bible speaks about. Really, there are a lot of mysteries in there that just cannot be solved. How could God create everything simply by speaking it into existence? How can one man's blood pay the price of sin for all people? These are mysteries that God has chosen not to reveal to us, and since we cannot understand them, I believe many look to see if they can find some tangible explanation.
The thing is, there is one rather large mystery that isn't a mystery for us. Jesus's blood, His perfect life, death, and resurrection, have indeed served as God's means of restoring His fallen, sinful creation back to Himself. That's not a mystery. Sure, the mechanism for how He could do such a thing might be a mystery, but as God reveals it, it's not a mystery that God has done this for all people of the world.
We have plenty of mysteries to be solved, and really, I have come to believe that God doesn't answer all our mysteries, simply to remind us that we aren't ones who are God. There are things about Him that we cannot comprehend or understand. And, while the mystery solver in me doesn't really like that, the faith in me says that it's okay that God is God, and I am not.
Indeed, there are mysteries to contemplate when we explore the things of God, and that is where faith comes in.
ReplyDelete