Written by Mark D. Roberts, a contemporary writer.
When I was a teenager, I wanted to figure out God. I thought that if I worked hard enough and was completely logical, then everything about God would ultimately make sense to me. In retrospect, I think my desire to know God was laudable, but my expectations were naïve. I didn’t take into consideration my own limitations as a human being and God’s unlimited nature. Nor did I account for how sin gets in the way of our knowing God. Over time, I have come to realize that, although there are many things we can know about God because they have been revealed to us, our understanding has limits…God’s ways are often mysterious. Sometimes they are gloriously mysterious. Sometimes they are frustratingly mysterious. For example, when God allows the innocent to suffer, when God fails to act in ways that would seem to highlight God’s own glory, and when God appears to say “no” to our fervent prayers, we struggle to accept God’s inscrutability. It’s not just that we can’t understand God’s ways. Part of us doesn’t like them! Yet, the greatest mystery of God’s nature leads us not to exasperation but to exaltation. I’m talking about the wonder of God’s grace, God’s limitless mercy, and unfathomable love. The more we reflect upon the mind-blowing goodness of God, the more we’ll echo the words of Paul in Romans 11:33: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” For Paul, as for us, the mystery of God’s grace leads to astonished praise.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. [Isaiah 55:8]
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