New Year, New MerciesSample

The best theology will not remove mystery from your life, so rest is found in trusting the One who rules, is all, and knows no mystery. Her voice quivered that morning as she told me to get home as quickly as I could. My wife, Luella, is a very emotionally stable woman. She isn’t easily rocked. I knew what we were facing was serious because it had rocked her. I was about six hours away; with my assistant, I made the nervous trip home. Nicole, our daughter, had started her walk home from work late the previous night, as she had done many nights before. A car driven by a drunk and unlicensed driver careened up on the sidewalk and crushed Nicole against a wall. She had devastating injuries, including eleven breaks of her pelvis and massive internal bleeding. When I finally got to the hospital and walked into Nicole’s intensive-care room, I did what any father with a drop of parental blood in him would do. I fell apart. I crawled up on Nicole’s bed, not sure if she could hear me, and said, “It’s Dad, you’re not alone, and God is with you, too.” When I walked into that room, it was as if the whole world went dark. My heart cried, “Why, why, why?” If I could choose, I wouldn’t have any of my children go through such a thing. And if I had had to choose one of my children, I wouldn’t have chosen Nicole at that moment in her life; she seemed so vulnerable. In an instant, we were cast into life-changing mystery, and our theological non-negotiables didn’t take that mystery away. Nicole did recover well, but we lived through four years of travail. I held onto the thought that our lives were not out of control. We were comforted again and again with the thought that when it came to Nicole’s accident, God was neither surprised nor afraid. You see, there is no mystery with God. He is never caught off guard. He never wonders how He is going to deal with the unexpected thing. I love the words of Daniel 2:22: “He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him.” God is with you in your moments of darkness because He will never leave you. But your darkness isn’t dark to Him. Your mysteries aren’t mysterious to Him. Your surprises don’t surprise Him. He understands all the things that confuse you the most. Not only are your mysteries not mysterious to Him, but He is in complete charge of all that is mysterious to you and me. Remember today that there is One who looks at what you see as dark and sees light. And as you remember that, remember, too, that He is the ultimate definition of everything that is wise, good, true, loving, and faithful. He holds both you and your mysteries in His gracious hands, and because He does, you can find rest even when the darkness of mystery has entered your door.