He Knows Best

"Alright, love, ask me your question.

But I'm warning you,
there's an awful lot of stuff
in the answers I have for you
that you'll just never
be able to figure out on your own."

Jeremiah 33:3

(Sandra's New Personal Version)

Another (slightly more reliable) version of this verse can be found here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jer%2033:3&version=NIV

How do you feel about the idea of God answering your prayers (or "calls") by telling you things whose meaning you can't even search or find or even know? I personally find it somewhat puzzling.

I went geocashing with some colleagues today, which basically involved being given a map, directions and having to find more or less carefully- hidden objects under or inside trees. Is God in the geocashing business too? Perhaps he is except that he seems sometimes to be leaving us hanging, not giving us the full map and directions to the blessings we ask- and are looking for. Why so?

In the couple of verses following verse 33 God describes to Jeremiah how the house of Judah will first suffer under the hand of their oppressors, the Babyloneans, because of their wickedness BUT that later he is going to show his face again and heal them and restore them. Why does he choose to do it this way and in that order and what is the purpose of it all? I wonder what Jeremiah thought, but I'm sure these words that were spoken to him beforehand "Unsearchable things you do not know", helped him along the way.

Those words still puzzles me as I read them but I must say they comfort me too. Come to think of it, isn't it great that God alone really is in control of everything, that he can see and handle the big picture? I don't always understand all the stories, places and ways God chooses to speak to me and change me, but it's ok. I don't need to. I believe God wants to release me from this desire to know everything, control everything and all the vain hopes and dreams that it brings. He says, "Trust me with your destiny".

The plans he has for me and the timing of its unfolding I doubt I will ever fully understand, or neither perhaps at times fully agree with, but he knows best. What do I know? Did I make, form and establish the earth? Not too long before this passage God had also promised Jeremiah that his plans for his people were good (chapter 29).

I suppose it's a bit like a painter and his canvas.

Most artists, when they face a blank canvas, have at least some idea of what they intend to paint, they can visualise the final result already there. God is like a skilled, loving, painter. What do I, the canvas, know about the final result? He knows his material, what hues and tones and colours he wants to use. Every painting is unique. God doesn't promise there will be no blotches on the way, but he never makes mistakes, and he promises that the work will be be completed, one flick of a brush at a time, and that in the end it will be beautiful. (Phil 1:6, Rev 21:2)

(Purple Profusion, Patricia Henderson)