mystery and longing

​by Donna Churchill

Do you like to read mystery novels? I do. But I have a confession to make – when I read a
mystery, I always feel a strong compulsion to read the last chapter first! I want to know
while I’m reading the book “who done it!!” I don’t always succumb to this temptation, but
sometimes I do! Sometimes the mystery is just too much for me!

There is so much about life that is a mystery to me – to all of us. Some mysteries we can
pursue and solve; others, no matter how we try, we cannot. I believe it’s meant to be that
way. Mystery creates longing…..a longing to know.

Deuteronomy 29:29 tells us – “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those
things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever…..”

And then Proverbs 30:18 & 19 says this: “There are three things that are too amazing for
me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas, and way of a man with a maiden.”

These Scriptures tells us that there are some mysteries that God reveals, but there are also
mysteries that we do not and cannot understand, and, in fact, are not meant to understand -
yet.
In his book, Longing for More, Timothy Williard says this:

Made for Beauty, Made for Mystery

“The glory that you have given me I have given to them.” John 17:22

We watch the sun set. It stirs a desire within us. We cannot quite describe the desire – we
want some part of the experience. But what? C. S. Lewis says we don’t want the sunset itself.
Rather, we want to crawl inside of it and wash ourselves with whatever it is behind the
sunset – an experience of interaction with its Creator.

Studies in science tell us our brains are hardwired for belief. God made us with the ability to
desire that which cannot always be seen or fully known. ‘If I find in myself a desire which no
experience in this world can satisfy,’ says Lewis in Mere Christianity, ‘the most probable
explanation is that I was made for another world.’

In a BBC feature, Ben Quash, professor of Christianity and the Arts of King’s College London,
said beauty is known best when it is giving the sense of home and communion. We find echoes
of Lewis here, for Lewis always seems to be reaching for home in his writings, while at the
same time aiming us at the sunset – content to leave us in the arms of longing.

"Do you feel the pull of another world? When you encounter the mysterious and the beautiful,
do you also experience a peace in knowing that Jesus is showing himself to you? I feel at home
in mystery, but it seems many Christians think mystery and the lack of answers
uncomfortable. I think God gives us mystery so that we stay humble, so that we constantly
thirst for him, so that we continually find delight."

I can identify with what Lewis says. Sometimes when I see a thing of beauty, I want to crawl
inside it and own it, that it would last forever. I want to capture it and stay in it! The
mystery of what touches our hearts when we see something of beauty or hear beautiful
music or are moved to tears when we read or watch a love story pulls at our hearts. We
can’t always understand what we’re feeling. Something deep in our spirits is moved and
touched by the depth and beauty. What comes through them to us is longing. That’s the
place where God resides and we are responding to His glory being revealed. But the
mistake comes when we think our longing is just for the thing of beauty. The true longing of
the heart is for God – to know Him and be known by Him. (Psalm 42:7 tells us “Deep calls
unto deep…”) We are longing for the Creator, not the created. We are longing for home.

​This is what separates. We can see or hear a thing of beauty and long for it to never end
because it is so beautiful and touches something deep inside. But to allow our souls to go
further and long for that which created the thing of beauty and gave it expression will be
what pulls us and drives us to see and know the Creator for ourselves.
​
It is not for us to solve the mystery of that. It is for God to reveal Himself to us and to draw
us into His mystery. To continually find delight. Embrace this mystery; celebrate it!
Celebrate the glimpses of God He chooses to reveal to you in the mysteries of His creation.
And then be content to leave the rest with Him. Because to know Him wraps us in the
greatest mystery of all time – the revealed Messiah – Jesus Christ – God with us!

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