Mysteries

Don’t you love a good mystery?  I love to read and a good mystery is at the top of my list.  I remember as a young girl reading Nancy Drew mysteries, enjoying the discovery of clues, putting the pieces together until finally – mystery solved!   As soon as I finished one book, I was ready for the next.

The fun part of the mystery is the hunt.  It starts with a desire to understand something seen or heard. Perhaps it’s something that doesn’t make sense, or something that doesn’t seem reasonable or even possible.  But curiosity is stirred and the search for knowledge begins. It takes time and perseverance to solve a good mystery.  There must be observation, investigation, and meditation on each clue to see how it fits with the last.  There is satisfaction when a clue is understood and much anticipation as we know we are that much closer to understanding the bigger mystery.

I also like jigsaw puzzles.  You can look at the box and know what the final result should be, but the challenge is in fitting all the pieces together.  Some pieces are so very close in size and shape to others that it would be impossible to find proper placement if there weren’t a picture on the box.  The greatest satisfaction comes from fitting the most difficult pieces together.  Often we will look at a piece and try as we may, we just can’t find the right spot.  We walk away for a bit and when we return it seems so obvious where it goes!  Much like solving a mystery, it takes time to study each piece and find the connection to the others.

The things of God are a mystery.  We see or hear something about Him that stirs our curiosity and we want to know more.  We open His word and begin to read and it can seem impossible to understand.  We must be willing to persevere, willing to keep His word in front of us, even if we don’t yet have understanding.  We must observe it and meditate on it in order to gain knowledge. God gives us a promise that we can understand:

Psalm 119:130 says “The entrance and unfolding of Your words gives light; their unfolding gives understanding to the simple.”

Paul wrote “For I always pray to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation – of insight into mysteries and secrets – in the deep and intimate knowledge of Him, by having the eyes of your heart flooded with light…”  Ephesians 1:17-18

Do you see how these two pieces of the puzzle fit together?  Psalm 119 says the if we study His word we will be given light (understanding) and Ephesians says we will have insight into the mysteries and secrets when our hearts flooded with light!

Remember the picture on the front of the puzzle box?  It’s Jesus.  When we observe, investigate and meditate on His life – Who He was and all that He did, the pieces of His word begin to make sense.  We can see a pattern forming and the picture becoming increasingly clearer.  Every answer is in this box, the bible.  It truly does all fit together perfectly.

There is much excitement when we’ve fit pieces together, particularly when they were difficult ones!  Our anticipation grows as the picture begins to take shape in our lives and we start looking more like the picture on the box! The commitment must be to keep His word in front of us, to seek understanding with the same determination we would employ to solve any other kind of mystery.  We are guaranteed success:

“And He (Jesus) said to them, To you has been entrusted the mystery of the kingdom of God (that is, the secret counsels of God which are hidden from the ungodly)…   Mark 4:11

God has trusted us with the mystery of His kingdom – His secret counsels that are just for His children and no one else.   Do you have a mystery in your life right now?  A problem you have no idea how to solve?  Pieces of your life that seem completely disconnected?  He’s waiting to speak to you through His word:

“And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it…”  Isaiah 30:21