Only just a few minutes filled up the space of the time the storm moved in and I went outside to notice the sky and then a little more space between us sitting by the pool.
We talked of God and Eden and things we keep covered or rip off the cover, I thought, exposing what we feel must be better, must be ours to know now. I’d walked outside after the storm had shaken all the windows, my husband walked in the room and announced, “Well, that was some show.” Paused and then to make sure I noticed added “I probably shouldn’t have been standing out in it”.
I listen, knowing he’s talking about the lightning; but, he does this thing lately, like a conversation starter game. If I hadn’t said, “You mean the lightning?” He’d have come back with “Don’t you wanna know about the show?”
And I would have listened as he told me something I already knew. Such is the play of who we are now, husband and wife aging, grace and more grace. (Smile.)
I walked out front to see the sky. One big chunk to the left, clearing with a puff in plump peach colored sun popping through enormous cloud.
I turned to face the road and wide bands of dark cobalt stretch out to border the horizon with more clouds warning, it’s storming over there.
Stood there for a while and wondered how it’s possible to see the sky and not believe.
“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.”
Psalms 8:1 ESV
Why the sky and its display of power and authority in itself is not enough to make us sure of God.
Why we don’t stay sure for as long as we should when we get to see such glory when we go looking for it, notice it’s God.
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”
Psalms 8:3-4 ESV
The night, too beautiful to be ignored, I walked out back to sit, turned back to see the view and the moon had broken through, full.
I tried to capture it; but, realized I can never do justice, so just gazed instead.
Still thinking about God.
When my husband came out to join me, I asked “Don’t you think it’s amazing how we get to experience earth’s beauty even though creation was not exactly as God planned in Eden?”
He replied, “Do you think we’d all be walking around naked, if Eve hadn’t messed up?”
And since I didn’t answer, he went on to wonder what I thought and said “We would all just be walking around naked and nobody would care about being naked…wouldn’t bother you at all.”
“I guess so.” I replied. Such is the dialogue between us, I’m thinking majesty and beauty, he’s thinking freedom and unclothed bodies. (Smile.)
I thought about Eve later, Adam too. I reread the account of creation, reminded myself of the earth and sky’s forming, imagined God stepping back like I step back from a canvas, satisfied and thinking it turned out the way I wanted.
And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:26
Adam was created, then Eve and the plan was complete, they’d multiply. The earth would be filled with men, women, children and families.
God welcomed them in, gave instruction on living and left them with a final word not to eat from the tree called knowledge, the tree that distinguished good from evil.
And they didn’t for a while. They must have enjoyed the garden; been content in their state, knowing all they needed was already known.
I wonder about this time in between, how contented changed to discontented and sufficiency became insufficient, how enough became never, always more.
Eve succumbs to the need for more knowledge, more control, more knowing and she eats the fruit that will help her know all, she’s been told.
The serpent’s rationale, well God must have surely known you’d want to eat from the tree or else he’d not have put it here. He wants you to be wise…your eyes will be opened to the bigger the better, the all, you’ll be like Him, the all-knowing.
Then they did their best to hide from God; they’d both become ashamed and they covered what God had intended as beautiful, uncovered.
So began the lots of our lives here on earth.
Wanting to know more than we need to know and then hiding away when we’ve rushed to know it all, certain that we can’t be expected to not know, to trust the one who made us, surely it’s okay to take control.
Yesterday, I read a favorite verse, clinging to just a few of its words.
The secret things belong to the Lord.
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV
There are some things that I might never know, that aren’t meant for me to uncover.
Yet, there are so many more I’ve waited to understand that I now see clearly.
Why the road led me to Carolina, my father’s instructions to return to college, the plans I forced that fell through my fingertips and the healing that I prayed for, believing, but was not given my mama.
There are stories for my children, how things that didn’t turn out, did after all.
Adam and Eve tried to conceal themselves, told God, you can’t see us like this. We know you’ll be angry, we’re afraid so we’ve covered ourselves.
And He was disappointed.
Disappointed they didn’t believe his promise for them, that it wasn’t enough.
He called them out of hiding, asked if they ate from the tree, did someone tell you that you were naked or do you know things now you should not have known, things that weren’t necessary for you to understand?
You will see, some things are too wonderful to be known, to not be sought after, to not be taken hold of by force.
I think of David and his prayer to be restored to the joy of his salvation after giving in to lust and then trying to cover it all up.
I remember Rebekah, the mother who made it her calling to have one son favored over the other, their demise, her legacy.
And I treasure the story of Job. I see him abandoned and grieving, his body covered in sores and his commitment not to question. His friends, his wife all unable to wait alongside him when he’d said no to cursing God and dying.
I hold close his truth, my truth, all our truths…some things are simply too wonderful to know.
“’Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”
Job 42:3 ESV
I told someone just now, the major planner that they are, looking far ahead into our futures and the things they expect just makes now look less than enough.
Makes the grand of now go unnoticed.
Told them, there’s no way to know that this good thing we expect will come for us. I’m not looking that far ahead nor am I assuming what the wonder of tomorrow will be or not be.
These are the things too wonderful for me to know, not mine to uncover.
Only mine to ponder, to have make more sense when the thoughts become words and I get to spread them out here or in the pages of a tiny pencil marked book, I get to be vulnerable, uncovered. (Smile.)
I’m linking up with Jennifer Dukes Lee to Tell His Story. Read here about why we shouldn’t be afraid to take scary chances.
http://jenniferdukeslee.com/scared-heres-shouldnt-take-chicken-exit/
Lisa Anne Tindal 