Things Revealed

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. (Deut. 29:29)

I love to ask questions. In many ways, I never escaped the "why" stage. I was always the kid who didn't just want to know why the sky was blue; I wanted to understand refraction {sympathetic sigh for my parents here}.

I'm not quite sure why God made me this way, but I have carried it over into my relationship with Him. It's not that I don't have faith - I do - but God has wired me such that I need to know that my faith makes sense! As my pastor's wife puts it, I have to know that what I believe is intellectually honest. I don't want to have a "faith" sector of my thinking and a "facts" sector. I want to know how the two intersect and what makes sense to explain that.

The great thing is, we have a God who is about revealing, not withholding. From creation to Scripture to Jesus, God has revealed Himself. Did He tell us everything? No. And for people like me that can be a hard pill to swallow. That's why this passage in Deuteronomy means so much to me. There are "secret things" that belong to Him. But there are many, many "things revealed" that He has given to us, to lead us into a loving and obedient relationship with Him.

Ultimately, what God has chosen to reveal is sufficient. We can spend a lifetime pursuing the depths of these "things revealed" and still barely scratch the surface. Jonathan Edwards theorized that the reason that heaven will be for eternity instead of a predetermined length of time is that it will take eternity for us to plumb the depths of an infinite God and all the things we couldn't know while here below.

I love that God has given me a mind to ask questions. I love that our faith is based on solid facts: a literal resurrection, a risen Christ seen by many, the written witness of those who walked this soil with Him. Paul and John especially go to great lengths to let us see that our faith is grounded firmly in reality. And yet I also love that He doesn't answer every question. He knows what I can handle.

I love that He has placed around me some faith-filled people who simply trust His loving hand and His pure heart. They remind me that all my searching and digging is pointless if it doesn't lead me to deeper relationship with Him and others. For as Paul wrote, knowledge without love is nothing.