Same As

Grammy was reading a book about fire safety, huddled under a blanket with the big kids. At the prompting of the text she stopped and looked at Mister.
“Do you know your phone number, Mister?” She asked.
“Yep.” He responded assuredly, looking her in the eye.
“Well, what is it?”
“Same as Sis,” he answered with confidence, sure of the accuracy of his answer.
I have thought long about the beauty of his answer and it’s spiritual implications. This summer I was invited by a friend to a 10-week, intensive bible study. It has stretched my understanding of God and shown up in the laundry, dishes and park dates with friends. But it has also helped me to see how little I really see- how little I will probably ever see this side of heaven. There is much that is unknown and like Mister, I want to stake my claim on something other than my own understanding. Granted, the five-year-old big sister has little in common with God Almighty, and he really does need to learn his phone number, but I was grateful nonetheless for the laugh and the lesson.

Acknowledging the mystery of atonement by no means excludes me from struggling with and against real theology, but as I study and pray I want to be ever mindful that God is God and I am not, and at the end of each day and at the dissatisfying end of temporal answers there is Truth that I am unable to comprehend, even when I feel the weight of it in my bones. I agree with I Timothy 3:16: “Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: he appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.” And so I say with A. W. Tozer, “I am looking for the fellow who will say, ‘I don’t know, but oh Lord God, Thou knowest.’ There’s someone who is spiritually wise.”

“Oh, Lord God, Thou knowest.” Ezekiel 37:3