THE POWER AND BEAUTY OF MYSTERY

 

“The most beautiful thing that we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He… who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” — Albert Einstein

 

Life is filled with things that are too big for us, things that we can never understand, things that cannot be parsed and studied, Most, virtually all, of the best things in life are mysterious. Love itself (who really knows what it is), trust, desire, fear, a “calling” from God, the essence of God (what makes God happy, what breaks God’s heart, or is all about the same to God), the loaf and the cup, being fully human and fully God, the value of just one person, a lasting memory that brings a smile to our lips, forgiveness, grace… and a thousand more things that make life worth living are mysteries. We can’t break these things down into measureable parts… without destroying the whole.

 

Today my heart breaks for the people of Israel- and all of the others who are oppressed and slaughtered for simply being who they are. I don’t understand hatred that runs so deeply and so indiscriminately. My father suspected that college graduates were long of information, but short on sense… and I will confess that there are many wonderful things that I just accept… because I don’t understand them. And God is at the top of the list. Like Moses, I would like to know God’s nature. I would like to know God’s priorities and exactly what God expects of me and you. I don’t understand how God can forgive those who are crucifying His Son. I don’t understand why God would love me… but… I desperately need to accept it! I need to embrace it, to make life worth living and to save my soul!

 

Other than Christ, no one had a more honest  relationship with God than Moses did. He felt free to speak his mind to God and God often listened, but in our passage today, he went too far. He insisted on seeing God’s “glory,” God’s essence. He said that, if God fully disclosed His essence, it would empower him (ie. Moses) to be a better servant. He wanted to know God just as well as God knew him… but God said “no.”

 

God refused to show Moses his “glory.” Instead He told Moses to go to a place where He would pass by, but Moses wouldn’t be allowed to see God’s “glory” because He would cover Moses’ eyes as He passed by. Moses would be allowed to get a glimpse of God. He would see God’s back, He would know that God had been there, but he would never see God’s face because YHWH is holy, mysterious, and cannot be fully known.

 

Like Moses, we sometimes get a glimpse of God’s presence, and we see the majesty of God’s handiwork now and then. We can see God’s fingerprints in our lives or in someone else’s life. There are times when we “feel” God’s presence just as clearly as we feel anything else. At times we hear God’s voice in our minds, our hearts, or in words someone is speaking to us.

We see God dimly. We see God from time to time, but we will never see God’s face on this side of forever, because God is mystery! God’s greatness, God’s grace, God’s love. God’s patience, God’s forgiveness, and the essence of who God is… will forever be wrapped in a wonderful mystery!