The Many Mysteries of God 

   “If you understood him, it would not be God.” (St. Augustine) 

   As much as I want to know my God I also know that full knowledge of the Almighty is not possible in this lifetime.  I foresee spending all of eternity in His kingdom trying to fully understand Him and I’m not sure that it will be possible even then.

   For instance, God is and always has been complete, He has no need of anything for He is everything.  So why did He choose to create the universe and all the sinful people in it?  He sees all things in the moment, time is not relevant to God.  Therefore, He knew that His prized creation would reject Him.  He knew they would later reject His Son and nail Him to the cross.  Why create rejection and hatred toward oneself?

   In a few days we will celebrate the coming of Christ as a baby, born in a stable and placed in a manger for a crib.  Why did He not come as a great ruler?  He was the foretold son of David who was to rule the Davidic kingdom, yet He did not come as a king.  Instead He came as a helpless infant and then spent 30 years as an unknown, the son of a carpenter from all appearances.  Why hide His divinity rather than shouting it from the rooftops?

   So many things I don’t understand….how does a piece of unleavened bread become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ?  Why does He care about me, a sinful man, who has far too often sinned against Him.  It is my sins and the sins of the world that drove those nails through His hands and feet on the cross.

   The greatest mystery is why He loves me; what have I ever done to deserve His love and mercy?  And yet He loves me so much that He gave His life for me on a cross at Calvary.  That love is the love He wants me to have for Him and for all His children and that too is a mystery.  How can I love as perfectly as He loves as an imperfect man.

   I don’t have the answer to all the mysteries, and I don’t believe I am meant to have that understanding.  If I knew all the answers there would be no need for faith, for faith is “the assurance of what we hope for and the conviction about things that cannot be seen.” (Heb 11: 1)