I received a card in the mail the other day and it appeared as though it was written in some strange dialect. I kept looking at it and finally realized that it was written in English, but backwards. I held it up to a mirror and could read it like a newspaper.
Huh?
Yeah…
It was from a guy who served as my driver at the Bill Glass Dallas Fort Worth Champions for Life prison ministry event last November. I was a platform speaker and he was my driver. He would shuffle me from prison to prison in the DFW area where I could offer my testimony to the inmates in the various prisons in the region. (Over 4400 folks made decisions for Christ during that event and it was a glorious two days for the Lord.)
I’m puzzled as to why he would write me in such a manner. The content was routine and he made no mention of having written his letter backwards. It was as though it was the normal way to write a letter and I assume that he fully expected me to figure out that a mirror would be needed to read it, or perhaps I would need to have the gift that he possesses to see things backwards. He filled the letter with idle chit chat and said that he’d read my book and enjoyed it and mentioned that he looked forward to seeing me again, maybe at next year’s DFW Bill Glass event. It was simply a routine letter.
Huh?
Yeah…
It’s a weird talent to be able to write backwards. The sentence on paper begins on the right side of the page, but when reflected back from a mirror, it appears on the left side like any normal sentence. It’s fascinating to view. At first it appears to be some sort of gibberish, but when I hold it up to a mirror, it’s transformed and is instantly intelligible. I wish I could see it from His mind’s eye and I suppose he sees it as it is reflected in the mirror.
I’m reminded of the verse in the Bible in 1 Cor. 13:12 – “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
The Bible doesn’t make sense to me sometimes. I don’t know how God got all of those animals on the ark; I don’t know how He created everything in just six days; I don’t know why bad things happen to “good” people; I don’t know why things that seem to come so naturally are so wrong; I don’t know why some seem doomed to abject poverty and squalor, while others seemingly live the good life; I don’t know how God could always just “be” – “I am”; I mean who created Him? I don’t know why blood had to be shed for sins, it seems almost barbaric to me.
I’m reminded of something that the Apostle John said of Jesus: “Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written”. Mind you this is just about the things that Jesus did in just thirty three years and not since time immemorial…
The great Bible commentator Matthew Henry wrote of this: Only a small part of the actions of Jesus had been written. But let us bless God for all that is in the Scriptures, and be thankful that there is so much in so small a space. Enough is recorded to direct our faith, and regulate our practice; more would have been unnecessary. Much of what is written is overlooked, much forgotten, and much made the matter of doubtful disputes. We may, however, look forward to the joy we shall receive in heaven, from a more complete knowledge of all Jesus did and said…
Okay to try and make some sense of this I conclude that we do not have the capacity to understand any more than God has provided to us. If the world couldn’t contain the things that Jesus did while on earth, the entire Universe couldn’t contain the explanation of who God in Trinity form is, and/or even begin to unravel the mysteries surrounding His limitless intellect and presence. Isaiah 55:9 – “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
I’m reminded of my pup Coopie. He’s sitting here looking at me with a curious, kind of silly, look on his face as I type this. Okay I’m going to try a little experiment.
“Coopie, the binary system represents things in zeros and ones.”
Hmmm…He just yawned and wagged his tail a couple of strokes.
Okay…Let’s try something easier. “Coopie, do you want to go outside?”
He just went ballistic. He’s jumping around and running back and forth and jumping up on me and pawing madly on my knee. He understands what that means for sure; (after he goes outside and does his business he gets a bacon treat).
Excuse me for a moment I have to take him outside or his little heart is going to explode.
Yikes! It’s cold outside this morning and this experiment not only delayed my writing of Words for the Day, but chilled me to the bone, but I digress. The bottom line is that we will never have things explained to our satisfaction because in spite of our arrogance, sadly we must come to the realization that we were created lower than God.
So what to do? God has given us plenty enough for us to simply have faith in Him. Coopie has already eaten his bacon treat, lapped up some water, and is now curled tightly in a little ball in his bed and is fast asleep. He’s not worried about terrorists abroad (or in the Whitehouse); he’s not worrying about the economy; he’s not gnashing his teeth worrying about global warming or social injustice; he’s not questioning my goodness. Coopie is content and I suppose has faith that I love him and will continue to provide for him is sufficient.
Isn’t that a nice little picture of what God wants from us?
My clumsy explanation might not make sense to you, but it makes perfect sense to me. God wants us to have childlike faith (or maybe Coopie-like faith). He has given His Bible to help us make it through the night and though it doesn’t address every jot and tittle with volumes of info that we couldn’t understand anyway, it contains more than we can absorb and is sufficient.
In fact this next and final verse sums it all up nicely. We just need to read it, wag our little, (or maybe big), tails, and thank God today and every day. We do have plenty to look forward to in the next life.
I don’t know about you, but I have lots and lots of questions with which to annoy God… Maybe that’s why he has delayed taking me on home…
John 3:16
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”