Beautiful Mystery

You’re a mystery
like poetry

like a parable

a rhyme or a riddle

You’re a mystery

wrapped in clouds

shouting so loud

just waiting to be discovered

You’re a mystery

so intriguing

You’re a mystery

so inviting

You saved Yourself for the weak

the humble and the meek

Only the hungry dine

only the thirsty drink deep

You saved Yourself for the needy

You saved Yourself for me

I want to waste my life to search You out

search You out…

(Mystery, words and music by Misty Edwards, ©2007 Misty Edwards/Forerunner Music)

It is Thanksgiving night, and I have much for which to be thankful. But at the end of the day, I have this song stuck in my head and I am right now just so thankful for the mystery: God Himself.

I am glad God is mysterious, glad He’s so immense I can’t see the whole picture, happy to be left wondering and finding answers only to discover that I now have a whole new set of questions. He’s The Mystery and The Answer.

I didn’t initiate my search for Him – He did that. He tucked clues and hints all around us, into every crevice of Creation. He gave us mystery so that we would discover Him. We want to know how gravity works. We want to know where the edge of the universe can be found and really…what does make magnets work? And whatever science may or may not discover about the mechanics of all those forces at work around us, the real answer is, “Because He said so.” Gravity works because He told it to. The edge of the universe – expanding or not – lies where it lies because that was the boundary He gave it. Magnets attract because God said, “Magnetic attraction, be!” When we go looking for the truth, we find God.

It’s just that simple…and it’s not simple at all. God doesn’t always explain Himself and He's not afraid of being misunderstood. He called Himself “I AM”. Who does that?

When God sent Moses to tell the Israelites that He was about to rescue them from their life of slavery in Egypt, Moses asked who he should say sent him if the people wanted a name. God answered, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” (See Exodus 3 for the story.)

And when that same Moses asked God, “Please. Let me see your Glory.

GOD said, ‘I will make my Goodness pass right in front of you; I’ll call out the name, GOD, right before you…

…But you may not see my face. No one can see me and live…

…Look, here is a place right beside me. Put yourself on this rock. When my Glory passes by, I’ll put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I’ve passed by. Then I’ll take my hand away and you’ll see my back. But you won’t see my face.” (Excerpted from Exodus 33, The Message.)

By the way, the original language for, “I’ll call out the name, GOD…” is a reference to that earlier conversation between God and Moses regarding His name. That name, that beginning of mystery, is something like “The One Who Exists” or “The One Who Is”, “The One Who Abides, Remains, Continues”.

His name and His face are shrouded in mist and mystery, but not His heart. The One Who Exists in mysterious clouds and flashes of light has made Himself known to every man, woman and child who cares to know. He gave us just enough information so that anyone with an ounce of curiosity surviving from childhood will at some point go looking for Him. And anyone who goes looking won’t be disappointed.

He hid His face, but He laid open His heart from the day He left off speaking things into existence and instead used His very hands to sculpt a human being and His very breath to give that human life. His heart was laid open when the Son left the Father and crowded His larger-than-the-universe self into a helpless baby-body. His heart was laid open for all to see when that Son laid down and died so the handmade-mud-man could someday stand again and look the Beautiful Mystery in the face, call His name and finally live what was in God’s heart all along.

You’re a mystery

wrapped in clouds

shouting so loud

just waiting to be discovered

I love the mystery. Thank You for the mystery, God-Who-Was-and-Is-and-Continues-Forever.

Ambushed at the river by the I AM WHO I AM,

Kimberly

Hello, Lord. I thought that was you just ahead in the cold mist. I see the back of your Glory. I see what Moses saw covered by your hand with eyes peeking through trembling fingers. The earth knew this moment in its own natal glory when Heaven kissed the sunset.

(Caption by Kathy LaMantia, photo of sunset and rising mist on the Kenai River, titled "Sunset at the Confluence")