“The secret things belong to the Lord.” Deuteronomy 29:29 NIV
“There are times when you will just not know enough to know the answer.”
My thoughts today are about things “only God knows.”
Doesn’t it drive you crazy sometimes that there are things you just can’t know – puzzles you don’t solve – a future you can’t predict – a past you can’t explain – circumstances you don’t control – people you can’t change? No matter how much you want to or how hard you try, it’s often beyond your reach.
I was amused to hear a political candidate asked a probing question, the answer to which both he and the interviewer knew would be controversial and unpopular. He paused an appropriate moment and then evasively replied, “The answer to that is way above my pay grade.” Well, the truth of the matter is that there is a lot about life that will remain above yours and my “pay grade.” There are times when you will just not know enough to know the answer.
My maternal grandmother was a saint of a woman in the truest sense of the word, none more gentle, loving or Godly. I never heard her, nor heard of her, ever saying an unkind thing about anyone. If anything, she would more often give some explanation of why they may have felt as they did, or said what they said. When asked about someone or something she could not explain, she would quietly say, “Only God knows,” and go back to what she was doing – usually cooking or cleaning her house while raising 13 kids of which my Mom was the oldest.
The unexplainable or unknowable often frustrates me, but never seemed to bother her. She was content with what she apparently was not meant to know, but wonderfully at peace that God does, and that’s all that really mattered. I think I would rather become a bit more like her.
Jesus identified with every time you ask, “why?” On the cross, as death neared and the heavens darkened as though God had withdrawn His presence, Jesus’ humanity echoed yours and my anguish at the unknowable and unanswerable, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Yet the heavens remained silent; no answer came. Jesus was content that some things “only God knows!”
Not long ago, an earnest university student sat in my office asking honest questions about human suffering, terrible tragedies, and unanswered prayers. She didn’t want to argue or debate a point. She was wrestling with issues of faith people older than her and wiser than me have struggled to explain, and failed in their attempts. I made a valiant effort, not to answer the questions exactly, but to point her to the character and nature of God and His wisdom and unfailing compassion for a world damaged and deranged by sin.
Godly people have asked God the hard questions before – of why people do bad things, why bad things happen to good people, and why the righteous suffer while the wicked seem to prosper. See Jeremiah 12:1-2 NLT/Psalm 73:1-19 NIV. When will things be made right? Psalm 1-2 NLT.
Thinking back on that, I should have remembered my kindly, trusting grandmother’s wisdom, “Only God knows.” That may not seem enough to intellectual arguments and relentless minds. But that really is enough for a heart that is settled in God’s care and believing His Word. Here is Abraham’s conclusion, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Genesis 18:25 NIV. I guess that was my grandmother’s confidence. She knew God. What God knew was good enough for her. I learned that from her; I share it with you. Read Psalm 9:7-10/1 Corinthians 13:9-13 NIV.
My prayer for you today is to know that’s God’s knowledge is complete when yours isn’t.