Picking back up from the reasons why I believe in God with number 4: Mystery. There are things that we can’t explain.
There is so much we know about the world and so much we have yet to discover. It’s amazing to think about all the scientific advancements we have made throughout human history and even more fascinating to think about what’s left to come.
Just when we think we’ve figured it all out, we discover something new. Of course we have more “information” than we did back when the world first began. We know about the laws of physics and how different chemicals interact with each other. We know that gravity is responsible for making things fall down and that whiplash is caused by inertia. We know about those “laws of physics” but can we explain the WHY? Why does gravity exist? Why does inertia happen? We know water molecules are composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. But why? These “laws of science” are too intelligent and ordered to be a random coincidence.
The exact answer to those questions are beyond our reach. It’s all a mystery.
That’s what I love about God. He is mysterious.
He leaves me constantly wanting for more of Him. Just when I think I might sort of understand Him and life and the ways of the world, I realize I know nothing. There’s no end to knowing Him.
For some – those who reject God – this infuriates them. They want to know everything. They want an explanation and an answer for all things, including God.
I, too, want this. I seek answers. I’m constantly questioning. I find one answer that leaves me with more questions. Never satisfied.
Usually this is a good desire. It pulls me and pushes me on the road that leads to Truth, to God. It instills an unquenchable yearning for Him. And each answer brings me one step closer to Him.
Sometimes, however, this quest for answers becomes a temptation. I want to eat of the fruit that grows from the Tree of Knowledge. I want to know everything God knows and understand it.
If I fall into this temptation, it sets me back, away from God, away from Truth.
I find it interesting that I want to know more. Why would I even care if there wasn’t more to know? Where would I be going, to what end, for what purpose? Toward what? Ever since “the beginning of time” creation had been moving, evolving, expanding, unwinding. Why? Why are scientists constantly experimenting and searching for new discoveries?
It seems there are many who deny God because they cannot “prove” He exists. They cannot “prove” that He set creation in motion, that He “became man” and was born of a woman (who had no ‘relations’ with a man), that He died but then IS alive again, or that He can somehow continue to be present to us in the form of ordinary bread and wine.
The thought is that since there is no proof, God…Jesus, Mary, the angels and all that “nonsense” are make believe stories akin to the Tooth Fairy or Santa Clause – merely stories to amuse children or reward them for “being good” or as punishment for “being bad”.
I can understand their reasoning. After all, I used to believe the Tooth Fairy was real and that a jolly old (very old!) fat man with a long white beard in a red suit squeezed down my chimney (and everyone’s in the whole world) and left presents (from my “secret list”) under our tree. Now, I don’t believe those characters exist outside of “Fairy Tale Land”. Why not? Because there’s no proof? I suppose that’s one reason. But the main reason I don’t believe in the Tooth Fairy or “Santa Clause” is because I caught my parents playing their parts.
I suppose a child (or even an adult) might wonder if God is only another made-up story like those. A nice story to give us “hope” and a “purpose” for our struggles. Heaven and Hell are merely “bribery tools” used to scare children – and adults – into submission.
But there’s too much we don’t know. There’s too much mystery. The fact that there are things that are “beyond our understanding” is the proof that something exists beyond our grasp.
Our understanding of the world around us and how everything works – is constantly unraveling. One day, we may even be able to know – beyond theories -how the dinosaurs really died. We may even find a way to understand – beyond theories – how the universe began. But it wouldn’t explain everything. There would still be at least one more question after that “final” answer.
How did all this come to be from nothing? What existed before this no-thing?
My brain stops there. I can imagine all the way up until the “big bang” theory. But that’s where I reach a blank wall. But I’m not satisfied. I know there’s more. It’s a mystery. I want to know what is behind that wall. I yearn to know Who this Mystery IS.
I yearn to Know Him. So that I can LOVE Him and be consumed entirely by His mysterious and infinite Love.
